[VoiceOps] Get ready for a weird dialplan change. 9-8-8 suicide hotline.

[Mike Johnston]

On 2020-07-19 00:10, Matthew Yaklin wrote:
> they still want the 9. Sigh.

Sigh, indeed.  I have heard this from manglement on a couple occasions. 
Yet, when I remove the 9, especially when replacing a phone system, I am 
usually thanked by the individuals that actually use the phones.

> Tell that to a large city customer who has 100 plus fax machines with
> a 9 programmed in for all the speed dials

For at least one customer, I created two different dialplans/digitmaps; 
one that requires a 9, and one that does not.  If your equipment 
supports it, that may be a useful transition path for those fax 
machines.  The fax machines would require a 9, while all regular handset 
phones would not.

I was really hoping Kari's Law would have motivated more vendors, 
businesses, telcos, and phone administrators to remove the 9 all 
together with.  But instead, I am seeing a lot special casing for just 
911 (some Panasonic systems, for example).

On a related note, I find it sad and frustrating that for some, it 
required a law to incentivize the proper working of 911.  That is, 9-1-1 
instead of 9-9-1-1.