9-1-1 services for Mobility customers in Canada

TELUS E911 service is currently accessible in most of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, the Greater Winnipeg area of Manitoba and the Greater Halifax area of Nova Scotia.

E911 is not yet available in Newfoundland due to limitations with landline network capabilities. However, Basic 9-1-1 service is available.

If E911 is not yet available in your area, you will be able to access it when you roam into E911 coverage areas.

displays your mobile phone number to emergency operators as well as the location of the cellular site carrying your call.

All phones and smartphones support E911 Phase 1.

provides improved location information to emergency operators. While Phase 1 is able to give the tower location, Phase 2 can also provide the longitude and latitude of the caller.

E911 calls from mobile phones are subject to the same limitations as regular calls from mobile phones. For example, if you’re underground or too far from a network antenna, your signal quality may be affected and you may not be able to connect to the network.

All phones and smartphones introduced as of February 1, 2010 support E911 Phase 2.

Starting April 6, 2019, all GPS-enabled devices globally will go through a clock rollover event. These devices include phones and smartphones. A small percentage of these phones will be negatively impacted by this rollover event.

TELUS customers using select phones and smartphones may have impacts on their location accuracy if that location is provided via GPS. E911 is an example of a service that uses the location details, and this location detail comes from various sources, of which GPS is one. In the event that GPS does not work, the phone can fall back to other sources of location, namely cell tower location, which will yield a location, but with slightly lower accuracy.

TELUS has worked with manufacturers to roll out fixes to affected devices. If your device is listed below, please update it to the latest software.

Some devices, however, will not receive software patches due to their age. If your device is listed below, it is recommended that you are aware of this issue and exercise caution if you find yourself in a 9-1-1 situation. Alternatively, you can visit your nearest TELUS store to purchase a new device.

There is a potential issue affecting 9-1-1 calling from certain Android devices with downloaded VoIP applications such as Viber** or Skype. You may be unable to complete calls to 9-1-1 if you have downloaded one of these apps and have made it the default call dialer on your device.

When you attempt to dial 9-1-1, the app dialer cannot process the call, because for 9-1-1 calls the VoIP application will revert back to the phone dialer to connect the call. However, if you have adjusted your settings to "Always use the app dialer", the phone dialer will send the call back to the VoIP app. A loop results and the 9-1-1 call cannot be connected.

The settings within the application must be changed and ‘Just Once’ should be the default dialer setting.

From your Android device:

When using a VoIP app such as Skype or Viber, always press when prompted for use as the default dialer. This will ensure you are able to successfully place a 9-1-1 call if required.

We are committed to protecting our customers and notifying them of any issues that impact emergency 9-1-1 calling from their TELUS devices. Google has indicated that this is a global problem and they are working with these app developers to fix this issue.

There is a fee collected in select provinces for the benefit of local 9-1-1 emergency operations centres. The amount of the fee is regulated in each province and the funds collected are used to facilitate local 9-1-1 services. Customers in Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan will be affected. Refer to the table below for specific fee amounts, varying by province:

Canadians depend on the provision of reliable and effective 9-1-1 services to seek help in an emergency. As technology and consumers’ needs evolve, so do consumers’ expectations related to 9-1-1 services. In the coming years, telecommunications networks across Canada, including the networks used to make 9-1-1 calls, will continue to transition to Internet Protocol (IP) technology.

This will enable Canadians to access new, enhanced, and innovative 9-1-1 services with IP-based capabilities, referred to as next-generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) services. For example, Canadians could stream video from an emergency incident, send photos of accident damage or a fleeing suspect, or send personal medical information, including accessibility needs, which could greatly assist emergency responders.

New functions are:

CRTC Decision 2017-182

.

CRTC Mandated dates that TELUS must adhere to:

NG9-1-1 is based on

Nena i3 standards

.

PSAPs will be required to make changes within their organization in order to connect to NG9-1-1 Network.

Existing phone systems will have to be replaced with Nena i3 compliant Call Handling Systems.

NG9-1-1 allows the public to send digital data to 9-1-1 call centers, or public safety answering points (PSAPs), and lets the PSAPs receive data from other transmitting devices such as wearable medical devices, car computers and building alarms.

Because most 9-1-1 systems were originally built using analog rather than digital technologies, public safety answering points (PSAPs) across the country need to be upgraded to a digital or Internet Protocol (IP)-based 9-1-1 system, commonly referred to as Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1).

Public-safety answering point.

A public-safety answering point (PSAP), sometimes called "public-safety access point" is a call center where emergency calls (like police, fire brigade, ambulance) initiated by any mobile or landline subscriber are terminated.

An ESInet is a managed IP network that is used for emergency services communications, and which can be shared by all. Public Safety agencies. It provides the IP transport infrastructure upon which independent application platforms and core.