At Northern911 our core business is helping people in times of need and handling emergency calls. It’s what we do all day, every day. We provide 911 (E911 and VoIP) Call Routing, Alarm Monitoring, Fire Dispatch and Telematics dispatching. Our services are proven and our results are excellent. We care about quality!

Q. What is the major difference between a regular 911 call and and VoIP 911 call?
A. The major difference has to do with how the callers telephone is connected to the provider of their telephone service.  A regular phone provides a dial tone using traditional copper wires, whereas a VoIP phone uses the Internet.  In general, this allows a VoIP user to get a dial tone anywhere in the world where the user can plug into a high speed service.  Because of this, when 911 is dialed on the phone, the address information that the VoIP provider has acquired from the client, may not be accurate and must be verified during the call.

Q. Whose responsibility is it to keep the VoIP user address information up to date?
A. It is the responsibility of the end user to ensure that any changes in address information is communicated to their VoIP provider on a timely basis.  Downstream V911 providers like Northern911 bear no resposibility in this area.  We simply work with what has been provided.

Q. Are there different types of VoIP service?
A. Yes, generally, VoIP service falls into 3 main categories.

• A VoIP phone is "Fixed" at a location in a place where the combination of the address and the telephone number match those as required by the telephone or data routing company. In this situation, regular Enhanced 911 service with a normal ANI/ALI (Automatic Number Identification/Automatic Location Identification) data stream can be provided in the United States and in Canada in certain circumstances. (Fixed Cable installations etc.) In many cases, even though the client may say they are "fixed" because it is still possible to move the digital to analog adapter. In Canada the CRTC has made a ruling that 911 calls from these locations have to be verified by a company like Northern Communications before being routed to the Emergency agency.
• A VoIP phone is a "Foreign Exchange Service" located in a place where the combination of the address and the telephone number do not match those as required by the telephone or data routing company. As an example, a Toronto telephone number that is physically located in Vancouver. As the telephone or data routing company may not be able to process this, regular enhanced 911 service is not available here. Only by using a downstream provider like Northern Communications can the client can still enjoy "Basic" 911 service.
• VoIP phone can be "Nomadic" which means that it has no fixed address. This type of phone may be used by a businessperson who travels from city to city and simply plugs their phone in a high speed internet access connection when they get to a hotel room. As no predetermined address is known, Enhanced 911 service is unavailable here and again only by using Northern Communications can the client can also enjoy "Basic" 911 service as well.

Q. How many people use VoIP services?
A. VoIP services are growing and so is the need for VoIP 911 Services. There is a forecast that about 25% of home lines will be VoIP by 2008.

NBI/Michael Sone Associates predicts that Voice over IP services will account for 24% of residential lines and 15% of business lines by 2008, with incumbents holding a 72% share of the business VoIP sector.

Q. How do I know that Northern911 can continue to provide service in the event of a wide spread emergency?
A. Having been in business for over fifty years, at Northern911 we know how serious emergency services are. We provide Enhanced 911 service to some municipalities, Basic 911 service to various VoIP providers and provide the complete dispatch for fifty volunteer fire departments. We have carefully considered all aspects of our client's/resident's safety in our business and disaster planning.

We use the regular PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) to route the calls in and out of our location. This method of transport is tried and true and in the last hundred years has been found to be very reliable.

We use multiple telephone providers so that if one were to fail, we could still use an alternative to make and receive calls.

To connect to the telephone companies we use copper and fiber strands which enter our building through different entranceways to reduce the possibility a telephone interruption.

To connect to the internet we are connected via copper, fiber from two different suppliers and even have a wireless route for an additional level of protection.

Database backups are performed multiple times per day and a complete database backup is taken off site on a scheduled basis.

Everything critical operates on battery backup and we have an auto start generator to supply electricity in the event of a commercial power failure. We even have a gasoline powered generator for "Backup on the backup" just in case!

Q. But what happens if our building burns down or Northern911 has to evacuate??
A. We have a fully redundant geographically different location for Enhanced 911 at a Police Station, (we provide backup for them and they provide backup for us) For our VoIP 911 clients we have a mirrored switch at our branch office in another city. If our primary switch were to fail calls are automatically routed to the backup site. Call Takers can log on locally or remotely from our Evacuation site.   More capabilities are being added on a regular basis to cover other services in addition to our 911 clients. 

Q. What about Government regulations?
A. In Canada the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) has made a number of rulings with respect to VoIP companies providing 911 service. You can read more about the CRTC on the Government Regulations page.

We believe that Northern911 is the only company that is connected to all five ILECs (Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers) across Canada. Because of this, we are able to route calls down the primary trunks of the PSAP/Police/Fire/Ambulance agencies anywhere in the country. This is the method as recommended by the CRTC and demanded by some cities.

We also provide bilingual (French/English) service and provide two paths to each of our Canadian clients so that not only can we communicate with the caller in their language of choice, we can also get the answer phrase in the correct language as well!

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