Three Layer Solutions
9-1-1 Policy

VoIP 9-1-1 service differs from traditional 9-1-1 service in a few important ways. It is essential that you, and everyone using your phone service, understand these critical differences.

With traditional phone services, your 9-1-1 call is sent directly to the nearest emergency response centre. With VoIP phone service, your 9-1-1 call may be forwarded to a third-party Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), that will automatically or manually route your call to the emergency response centre.

Because you can access your VoIP service from anywhere, the emergency operator may not have your name, location, or contact information available. It is therefore imperative that you immediately inform the emergency operator of your location and contact information any time you call 9-1-1. Do not risk sending emergency services to the wrong location. Do not disconnect until you are told to do so by an emergency dispatcher. If you are accidentally disconnected, call back immediately.

Enhanced 9-1-1 allows the customer to register their name, address, and other important information that can be used to locate them. This information is — ideally — automatically forwarded to the PSAP operator when you dial 9-1-1. This operator then forwards your information to the necessary emergency response services. In order to use Enhanced 9-1-1 service, it must be activated in your account dashboard. Under the “Services” tab, there is an E9-1-1 section where you can activate the service and update your information that will be passed to the PSAP when you dial 9-1-1. It is therefore your responsibility to

  1. Activate E9-1-1 when your service starts, and
  2. Keep your address and other personal information up-to-date through your customer portal.

You must be aware of how important it is to keep your E9-1-1 information current. If for any reason you call 9-1-1 and you are unable to communicate with the dispatcher, either due to technical issues or an emergency, the information you register in your E9-1-1 profile will be used to determine where to send emergency response. If this information is not up-to-date, emergency services will not know where you are in the event of a communications failure.

Three Layer Solutions offers Enhanced 9-1-1 Service to our customers. For this service we reclaim $1.50 USD per month from our customers — this is the amount we pay for the service, and we simply pass that cost on to the customer. We do not make a profit from 9-1-1 service.

VoIP service requires an active internet connection to work. In the event of any outage of your internet service provider, your VoIP service — and by extension, your 9-1-1 service — will not function. In the event of a power outage, your VoIP 9-1-1 service will not function. The service will not function until both internet access and power are restored. Additionally, a power failure or disruption may require equipment to be reset or reconfigured prior to VoIP services being available again. In the event that your service is suspended, your VoIP service will not function, including 9-1-1 services. As PSAPs are not international, if you use your VoIP service outside of Canada, your 9-1-1 service will not function.

Since VoIP service requires power, internet access and subscription payment, there are a number of ways that you may experience disruptions, delays, or failures in your 9-1-1 service. We strongly recommend you keep an alternative phone service (such as a mobile phone) handy to increase reliability of your access to emergency services.

It is your responsibility to notify users of your phone service of the nature and limitations of 9-1-1 service over VoIP. Included in your welcome package was a sticker with 9-1-1 information; if you require more, contact us and we will send some to you.

By using VoIP service from Three Layer Solutions you agree that you will not hold us responsible for any injury, death or damage to persons or property that may arise from your 9-1-1 service in any way, including an inability to access 9-1-1 service.

Our liability is set out in our Terms of Service, available at threelayer.ca/tos.