Have you updated your E911?

E911 Setup

Before you are able to place or receive calls with your Fonality Connect system you must have your E911 addresses updated. When logged into the Fonality Admin Panel, there will be a E911 warning banner letting you know that E911 needs to be activated for an extension.

Access the E911 page from the banner message or by clicking Extensions and E911.

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All RED status lights should be updated. To update them press the edit icon  next to an extension to update the E911 address information.

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E911 Address  

Fill out the name and all required address fields. The formatting of this form is most likely unique to what you are used to. For help on what information these fields require scroll over the help icon .

The address needs to be the physical address of the location of where the IP phone is located.

After you input all required fields, press the Update My Information button to process your E911 address with your extension and DID.  

E911 Information

As the result of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order, all Internet phone service providers are required to inform their subscribers that, under certain circumstances, when 911 is dialed from a phone connected to an Internet phone server, that service may be limited by comparison to traditional 911 service.

Traditional 911 service works as follows:

1. You dial 911 from a regular "land line" telephone.

2. The phone company has registered a street address to the land line used to make the call to 911.  The phone company is required by law to keep this database of street addresses and land lines by the Federal government.

3. The call arrives to the 911 operator and the computer in front of the 911 operator displays the street address of the caller.

4. The 911 operator can quickly dispatch an ambulance or police to the address on the screen or to any other address that the caller specifies if they are not calling from the scene of the emergency.

E911 service is different for the following reasons:

1. The Voice-over-IP phone that you use with Fonality Unbound uses the Internet to place and receive calls.

2. The Internet service at your home is not registered to a specific street address because the IP addresses assigned to your modem changes from time to time.  This means that the IP address assigned to your modem today may change and become your neighbor's IP address tomorrow.

3. Because IP addresses change from time to time, there is no method for identifying the physical location of an Internet phone 100% of the time.  For this reason, when you call 911 from your Unbound IP phone, the 911 operator will not receive your physical street address on their computer screen automatically.

4. Because the 911 operator does not automatically know the street address you are calling from, they are unable to automatically dispatch an ambulance or police to your location. 

All VoIP phone service works the same way.  No VoIP company can guarantee a street address & IP phone pairing in a local telephone provider's database, and all VoIP companies are required by law to post this information.

This does not mean that you cannot dial 911 from your UNBOUND IP phone.  You absolutely CAN dial 911 in an emergency.  But the 911 operator will not automatically know your location, and this will delay emergency professionals from reaching you - especially if YOU do not know your street address (keeping in mind that you can take your Unbound phone to another location like a hotel or temporary office and still use the service as long as there is an available Internet connection).