E911 Dispatch Addresses

When someone dials 911 from a phone on your account, the upstream carrier needs to know where the caller is so emergency services can show up at the correct address. This page walks through how locations and devices fit together to make that work.

US federal law (Kari's Law and RAY BAUM's Act) makes the dispatch obligation strict: the address must be specific enough for first responders to find the caller, and dialing 911 must work without any prefix. DialStack handles the carrier side of that obligation; the account is responsible for keeping each device's location current as people move desks, branches, or sites.

The pieces

Two things combine to dispatch an emergency call:

• Locations — the physical sites your account operates from. Each location is a structured address registered with the upstream carrier. Manage them on the Locations page.

• Devices — the phones at those sites. The device placing the call is what determines the dispatch address:

  • Deskphone — its dispatch location is set on the device itself.
  • DECT base — its dispatch location is set on the base; every handset paired with the base inherits it.
  • DECT handset — has no location of its own; uses whatever the paired base has.

  Manage devices and their location assignment on the Devices page.

Softphone and in-app SDK calls are handled differently. There is no fixed physical site for these users, so the dispatch address comes from the user themselves rather than from a device's location. The app prompts each user to register an emergency address before they can place any call, validates it against the official street-address database, and re-prompts when the user's network changes (a typical signal they've moved offices, hotels, or home setups). When that user dials 911, the call goes out with their currently-confirmed address attached — same dispatch quality as a fixed deskphone, as long as the user keeps up with the prompts.

Admins don't manage these addresses from the portal; each user owns their own. If the same user also has a deskphone or DECT handset assigned to them on the account, the two paths are independent — calls from the desk phone use the device's location, calls from the softphone use the user's registered address.

Provisioning a location

A new location is registered with the carrier from the Locations page. Each location moves through a status machine:

E911 status	Meaning
None	Not registered yet.
Pending	Submitted to the carrier; waiting for a response.
Binding	Carrier accepted the address and is finalizing the dispatch record.
Provisioned	Ready. Emergency calls from devices at this location will dispatch correctly.
Failed	The carrier rejected the address — almost always because it's not a deliverable street address. Use the Retry E911 action on the row to try again after fixing the address.

Only "Provisioned" locations actually dispatch. Assigning a device to a location that is still pending or has failed is allowed (handy during onboarding), but at call time the platform treats that device as if it had no location at all.

Assigning a device to a location

When you add a deskphone or a DECT base, the form includes a Location picker. Pick the site the device lives at. You can change it later from the device's detail page.

DECT handsets do not have a location field of their own — they inherit from the paired base. To change where a handset dispatches, either change the base's location (all handsets on that base follow) or repair the handset with a base at a different site, both from the device detail page. The handset's detail page shows the inherited location as read-only.

What happens when someone dials 911

1. The phone places the call.
2. The platform reads the location bound to that device (or the location of the paired base, for handsets).
3. If the location is Provisioned, the carrier registration ID is attached to the call and the carrier routes it to the correct emergency dispatcher (PSAP) for that address.
4. If the location is missing, still pending, or failed, the call still completes but no address is attached — the carrier routes it to a default dispatch center (typically tied to the calling number's area code), and the dispatcher who answers has no specific street address for the caller. They'll have to ask the caller verbally, which costs precious seconds in an emergency and only works if the caller is conscious and can speak.

Every emergency call also writes an audit log entry, so you have a paper trail regardless of whether the dispatch succeeded.

Keeping things accurate

• When a user moves desks within a site — no action needed, unless they also change devices. The device's location is what counts.
• When a user moves to a different office — reassign the device they take with them to the new location. If they switch to a phone that lives at the new office, no action needed: that phone already has its own location.
• When you swap out a phone — the replacement starts with no location. Set it on the device's detail page right after registering it.
• When you decommission a location — devices that were assigned to it have their location cleared automatically. Reassign them before the change so emergency calls don't dispatch with no address.

Failure modes to watch for

Situation	What happens at call time
Device has no location assigned	Call completes; no address sent to the carrier. Routes to a default dispatch center with no street address for the dispatcher to act on.
Location is still Pending or Failed	Same as no location — the call completes but with no specific address.
Location was deleted after assignment	The device's location is cleared. Same outcome until you reassign the device.

Testing without dialing real 911

Do not place real 911 calls to test. Dial 933 instead — it's a non-routable test number that exercises the full dispatch flow (carrier-side address lookup, audit) and reads your registered address back to you, without contacting a real emergency dispatcher.