Use this checklist with your elevator contractor, your IT group and your state or city elevator authority before you accept the job. Every item below is about the phone in the car and the system behind it. If a line can't be checked, it's an open compliance item and a life-safety gap.
Clause numbers refer to ASME A17.1 / CSA B44, Section 2.27.1.1, in the 2019 and 2022 editions. A printable one-page PDF is available to download below.
1. Baseline, every passenger car (2.27.1.1.1 to 2.27.1.1.3)
- Two-way voice between the car and a location staffed by authorized personnel who can act: a security desk, a monitoring center or 9-1-1.
- Hands-free in the car. No handset.
- One push button, permanently marked with the PHONE symbol, in or next to the car panel. Pressing it starts the call; the passenger dials nothing.
- Never answered by an automated attendant. A person picks up.
- On demand, the receiver can get the building location and car number.
- The passenger can't end the call. Only the receiver hangs up, or a timed cut-off with a 3-minute voice warning that the receiver can extend.
- Not acknowledged in 45 seconds? The call auto-forwards to a second on-site or off-site location.
2. Added in 2019, every car (2.27.1.1.3)
- A message on the car panel confirming the call is connected.
- Two-way messaging on the panel, so the receiver can reach and get answers from a passenger who cannot speak or hear.
- A "help is on the way" message the receiver can push to the car.
- Video that lets the receiver see a passenger at any location on the car floor, including someone on the ground.
Read this twice. Text and video are not a 60 ft (18 m) rule. They apply to every new passenger elevator, and to alterations as the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) applies them, wherever the 2019 edition or later is in force: a 3-story building the same as a 30-story one. It's the most common miss on a modernization.
3. Rise of 60 ft (18 m) or more (2.27.1.1.4)
- A second voice means inside the building, at the designated level, for emergency personnel. This is in addition to the car phone.
- Responders reach each car individually, with no delay and no action by the passenger. It overrides outside calls.
- It identifies the building and car; only the responder (or the timed cut-off) ends the call.
- A "help is on site" message displays in the car.
- Text and video are not required at this station by the base code (they are car-side, Section 2). Some cities add them; New York City does.
4. Power and self-testing (2.27.1.1.5 to 2.27.1.1.6)
- 4 hours of standby power for the communication means; 1 hour for the audible signal.
- The system verifies its own line automatically, continuously or at least daily, without a live call. VoIP and network paths need the equivalent check.
- A failed check lights "ELEVATOR COMMUNICATIONS FAILURE" and sounds an alarm at the designated level, by the FIRE RECALL switch, until the line is back.
- Backup covers the whole path (switches, PoE, gateway) and a failed test reaches a named person. This is good practice, not code. Put both in writing.
5. Beyond the code: what buyers ask for
- Communication holds up through a power or network failure, with a documented failover path.
- Live video the responder watches in real time, not a still image on request.
- Remote monitoring and diagnostics, so faults surface on their own.
- Encryption on the connection (TLS and SRTP on IP systems). Analog lines can't do this.
- No dependence on a copper POTS line. Carriers are retiring copper, and the phone has to survive that.
- The device meets your facility's IT, privacy and cybersecurity policy, and someone owns it.
Government, transit, healthcare and critical-infrastructure buildings often fall under NIST 800-53, FedRAMP, CJIS, HIPAA or state privacy law. Call audio and video are personal information. An unmanaged cloud or cellular device in a hoistway can fail that review even when it passes code.
6. Which edition does my state enforce?
ASME A17.1 is adopted state by state, and sometimes city by city, each on its own schedule. Talk-and-text (Sections 2 and 3 above) applies once your jurisdiction adopts A17.1-2019 or later without excluding the clause. See our elevator phone requirements by state and Canada CSA B44 guide.
- Ask the AHJ which edition is in force and whether any part of 2.27.1.1 is excluded or deferred.
- Ask whether the requirement is triggered by your alteration, not only by new installations (Section 8.7 and the AHJ decide).
- Ask about local additions. New York City (Appendix K) also requires text and video at the in-building station. Some states defer parts: Alabama postponed enforcing the video requirement to January 1, 2027.
- Get the answer in writing and keep it with the elevator file for the inspector.
7. Ask before you sign off
- Who picks up at 2 a.m.? Get the primary receiver and the failover in writing.
- How does it connect? POTS, cellular or IP/SIP. Analog can't carry text or video. Cellular is only as good as the signal in the shaft.
- Where does the video land, who may watch it, and where is it stored?
- Does IT manage this device, or is it on the network with no owner?
- Who tests it, how often, and where do I see the record for the inspector?
Line verification is not a monthly walk-around
Section 2.27.1.1.6 expects the system to check its own path, not a person with a clipboard riding 24 cars. ECPS, Emergency Call Path Supervision from Lift Communications, polls every elevator phone as often as every 30 seconds, with no simulated call, and trips the annunciator at the designated level when a path drops. You know in a minute, not at the next inspection.
Ask us about ECPS: call (212) 732-4658 or email info@liftcomm.com.
Clause numbers reference ASME A17.1 / CSA B44 Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators, one binational standard with identical numbering. Adopted editions and effective dates vary by jurisdiction and change over time; confirm the edition in force with your AHJ. Adoption examples verified October 2026 against the issuing authority's published document. Section 5 and items marked as practice are buyer requirements, not code text. This checklist is educational and is not a substitute for the code or a licensed inspection.
