E911 emergency address

Why every number needs a registered address, what the two 911 statuses mean, what it costs, and how to test it safely.

Federal law (Kari's Law and the RAY BAUM's Act) requires that a 911 call from your system reach the local emergency dispatcher with a real street address attached — not just your caller ID. Hey Quad handles the mechanics; you register the address.

Why every number needs this

When someone dials 911, the carrier routes the call based on the caller ID presented, not on where the person is actually standing. If that caller ID isn't registered with a validated emergency address, the call goes to a national call center instead of your local police, fire, or ambulance dispatcher — and it costs $100 (see below). Registering an address is what makes 911 route correctly.

Two statuses, not one

Emergency readiness on a number has two independent parts, shown separately in Settings → Emergency:

• Address — pending, validated, or failed. This is whether the street address you entered has been checked against the carrier's records. An address can be validated without anything being live for 911 yet — it's only confirming the address itself is real and deliverable.
• 911 — not enabled, provisioning, active, or failed. This is whether a specific phone number is actually live as that address's emergency caller ID with the carrier. Only 911 enabled: active means the carrier has confirmed it — that's the status that matters for a real 911 call.

A location isn't ready for 911 until its address shows validated and it has a number showing 911 enabled: active.

One location, or several

• Single location. Most small orgs have one address. Set it once in Settings → Emergency, assign it a phone number as its emergency caller ID (its ELIN), and every seat in the org uses it for 911 unless a specific device or extension is bound elsewhere.
• Multiple locations. Add one location per site, each with its own address and its own ELIN. Bind a device or an extension to the location it physically sits at. Hey Quad resolves which address to use, in this order: the device's own binding, then the extension's binding, then the org's default location, then — if the org has only one location — that location automatically.

Each ELIN is a real phone number on your account, dedicated to representing that address to the 911 system. It costs $1.50 per number, per month, while its 911 status is active.

The $100 unregistered-call warning

If a 911 call goes out on a number that isn't showing 911 enabled: active, the carrier still connects it — 911 is never blocked — but it routes to a national center instead of your local dispatcher, and Telnyx bills a $100 surcharge for that call. Registering your address and confirming 911 enabled: active before you rely on a seat is the only way to avoid both problems.

Test my 911

Once a location shows 911 enabled: active, a Test my 911 button appears for it. It dials 933, the carrier's test line — never a real 911 call — and reads back the address on file so you can confirm it's correct. The button stays disabled until the ELIN is active, so there's no way to fire it against an unregistered number by accident.

Never dial 911 itself to test this. Use 933, or the button.

If your org gates outbound calls on E911 readiness

Some orgs turn on a stricter setting that blocks ordinary outbound calling from any seat whose location isn't 911-ready, to guarantee every seat is emergency-ready before it's used for anything. If an outbound call is being refused with a message about 911 registration, that's this setting — ask an admin to check Settings → Emergency, or register the seat's location. This gate never affects 911 or 933 themselves; those always go through regardless of any org setting.

PSAP callback

If a dispatcher needs to call back after a 911 call, they call the ELIN — that's the point of registering it as the address's caller ID. Each location has a callback destination (an extension) you choose in Settings → Emergency; a call to the ELIN rings that extension. Point it at a person who can actually answer and explain the situation, not a general queue or an IVR — a dispatcher calling back needs a human immediately.

Common gotchas

• Address validated doesn't mean 911 works yet. Check for 911 enabled: active specifically before treating a seat as emergency-ready.
• A location with no callback destination set rings your front desk by default — set one explicitly for anywhere reliably staffed.
• Moving a location's ELIN to a different number takes it out of service until the new number shows active — don't do this right before you need it tested.