Bandwidth Extends 911 Emergency Services Capabilities with New Partnerships To Address the Needs of Large Enterprises

RALEIGH, N.C., Dec. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bandwidth Inc. (NASDAQ: BAND), a leading global enterprise cloud communications company, today announced three new partnerships that extend the company's capabilities in 911 emergency services ahead of the upcoming RAY BAUM'S Act compliance deadline of January 6, 2022. The agreements with three top 911 caller location management application service providers, 911 Secure, 911inform and 9Line Software, give Bandwidth a full-stack emergency services solution to address the needs of large enterprises and enable integrations with Avaya, Cisco/BroadWorks, Mitel and other popular non-fixed IP-based communications systems.

"With these best-in-class partners, whatever your operating environment looks like, we can now tailor-make an end-to-end emergency services solution on the Bandwidth platform that is cloud ready and customized for your unique environment," said John Bell, Chief Product Officer at Bandwidth. "This is another example of how Bandwidth is continuing to simplify enterprise communications and add new capabilities in order to help customers implement fast, reliable, accurate 911 services to ensure regulatory compliance and peace of mind."

RAY BAUM'S Act is a U.S. law requiring organizations utilizing multi-line telephone systems in large or complex sites, such as multi-story buildings, schools or college campuses, to provide precise dispatchable location information to first responders when a 911 call is made. The upcoming deadline of Jan. 6, 2022 includes non-fixed (nomadic and mobile) VoIP services that may operate on devices that can easily move around, like laptops, tablets or smartphones. Identifying the dispatchable location of end-users making 911 calls on these devices is a complicated process that may require indoor building mapping and software-based location auto detection and discovery. This new compliance directive is coming into effect at a time when the growing trend of "work-from-anywhere" means that determining the dispatchable location of a remote worker is more important and challenging than ever. 

Bandwidth's new partners provide the application layer for 911 caller location management, including location auto-discovery capabilities, for customers using Avaya, Cisco/BroadWorks, Mitel and other popular IP-based phone systems, encompassing both on-premises and remote workers. This application layer integrates with Bandwidth's routing layer, including its industry-leading dynamic location routing, along with Bandwidth's 911 access layer that connects with the thousands of public safety answering points (PSAPs) nationwide--giving enterprises that are subject to RAY BAUM'S Act a full stack of emergency services solutions with Bandwidth.

911 Secure offers a mix of cloud-based, on-premises and hybrid Next-Generation 911 services for Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, Teams and most other phone systems. The company's solutions provide for the locating of IP phones, on-site notification when 911 is called and an application that allows for remote workers to self-provision their location. These tools provide additional data to the PSAP. One example of the data provided is enabling emergency responders to know the most appropriate entrance of a building, with a floorplan on their tablet telling them exactly where to go and which elevator could accommodate a stretcher, to get where they are needed quickly and efficiently.

911inform provides first responders and on-site personnel with real-time situational awareness and pinpoint location data during an emergency. 911inform's single pane of glass solution provides detailed maps, live video feeds and bi-directional communications to first responders during an emergency, as well as remote control of doors, cameras, phones, HVAC, fire and alarm systems, paging, strobes and other IoT premises-based technologies. The company's solutions integrate with Avaya, Cisco, Mitel and similar phone systems.

9Line Software provides native integration with Cisco phone systems, including Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Emergency Responder and BroadWorks. The platform provides real-time, dynamic insertion of compliant and validated address information when calling 911. Remote workers are empowered to self-provision their address via the 9Line Jabber Gadget for Cisco UC, Cisco Webex for BroadWorks clients, and directly in the 9Line portal. 9Line's innovative new features, such as DID pooling, offer an immediate return on investment by eliminating the costs for direct-inward-dial numbers required by legacy ERL/ELIN-based service offerings.

In today's increasingly complex global regulatory landscape, Bandwidth aims to use its seat at the table with the leading standards and rulemaking bodies to provide customers with critical support and over-the-horizon insights on important regulatory developments. Bandwidth offers emergency services in 38 countries and territories worldwide, with Standard Address-based Routing, Coordinates-based Routing, and Dynamic Location Routing, as well as user-friendly APIs, to help automate and streamline the integration process for ease of operations so customers can easily embed 911 access into their applications. Bandwidth's 911 solutions are among only three that have been certified for use with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing, and are powering Zoom Phone as well. Bandwidth was awarded "Most Innovative Product" by UC Today in July for its Duet^SM for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing solution.

More information about Bandwidth's emergency services offerings and RAY BAUM'S Act compliance is available here.

About Bandwidth Inc.
Bandwidth (NASDAQ: BAND) is a global communications software company that helps enterprises connect people around the world with cloud-ready voice, messaging and emergency services. Backed by a network reaching 60+ countries covering 90 percent of global GDP, companies like Cisco, Google, Microsoft, RingCentral, Uber and Zoom use Bandwidth's APIs to easily embed communications into software and applications. Bandwidth has more than 20 years in the technology space and was the first Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) provider offering a robust selection of APIs built around our own network. Our award-winning support teams help businesses around the world solve complex communications challenges every day. More information is available at www.bandwidth.com.

SOURCE Bandwidth Inc.