Understanding Mobile E9-1-1 Service

Overview

Enhanced 9-1-1 is your connection to emergency service providers on your cellphone. E9-1-1 service is constantly improving to provide emergency operators with more specific information about your location and your cellphone number.

What you need to know

When you call 911 from your cellphone:

• Provide your complete mobile phone number, including the area code.
• Give your location and the location of the emergency.
• Stay on the line with the operator. Remember, you aren't billed airtime for 911 calls. If disconnected, leave your phone on so emergency operators can call you back.
• To avoid making accidental emergency calls, don't program 911 into your phone.
• Remember if you are 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.

E9-1-1 Service Locations

E9-1-1 service is currently accessible in nine of ten Canadian provinces. Only Newfoundland & Labrador has not yet launched E9-1-1 service, but it does offer Basic 9-1-1 service.

As an Eastlink Mobile customer, you will be able to access the applicable 9-1-1 service throughout Canada.

E9-1-1

All Eastlink cellphones are equipped for E9-1-1 services. When you dial 911, your cellphone number, the location of the nearest cellphone tower, and the GPS coordinates of your location are sent to the emergency operators. However, if you are underground or too far from a network antenna, your signal quality may be affected, so always remember to provide emergency operators with your cellphone number and location when you call 911.

Basic 9-1-1

As the Province of Newfoundland & Labrador has not yet launched E9-1-1, when you call 911 inside the province, your cellphone number and location will not be sent to the emergency operator. Make sure to provide your cellphone number and location, and the nature of your emergency to the operator so they can respond quickly. The Province is working to improve its 9-1-1 system, so please check back for updates.

E9-1-1 and Your Device

All cellphones sold by Eastlink are equipped for E9-1-1 services. If you purchased your cellphone from a company or person other than Eastlink, that company or person may have altered the identifiers on your device (e.g., IMEI, IMSI). The identifiers may also have been altered if you used a third-party to unlock or to change the Operating System on your device. In cases where your cellphone’s identifiers have been modified, you may not be able to call 911 during an emergency, even if you are able to complete regular calls.

If you are not sure whether your cellphone’s identifiers have been altered, please dial *611 on your mobile phone to speak to an Eastlink representative.

E9-1-1 and VoIP Apps for Android Devices

Voice-over-IP (VoIP) applications like Viber or Skype should not be used to call 911, and if you have these applications downloaded on your Smartphone, and have set your Smartphone to “always” use the application for calls, so that the application is the default dialer on your device, you may be unable to complete calls to 911.

The reason it may prevent you from calling 911 is that, when you attempt to dial 911, the VoIP application will revert back to the phone dialer to connect the call. However, because the settings are set to "Always use the app dialer" the phone dialer will send the call back to the VoIP app. As a result, the call can get stuck in a loop and the 911 call cannot be connected.

When using a VoIP app such as Skype or Viber, always press “Just Once” when prompted for use as the default dialer. This will ensure you are able to successfully place a 911 call if required. If you have already selected “always” or think you might have, you can simply change your dialer settings in your Smartphone to ensure your 911 calls will complete correctly.

How to change your dialer settings:

Please do not dial 911 to test your device.

To help ensure 911 calls can be made, it is strongly recommended that you remove the default dialer settings on these apps on an affected device by following these steps:

From your Android device:

1. Tap “Settings”
2. Tap “Application Manager”
3. Tap on the Menu button on the device
4. Tap “Reset app preferences”
5. Tap “Reset apps”