Does 911 know which building you're in?
If someone dials 911 from a desk phone at your third location, the dispatcher should see that building, that floor, and that suite. Here is what the federal rules require and how to check every site.
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The short version
- Kari's Law took effect February 16, 2020. Phone systems installed or sold after that date must let anyone dial 911 straight through, no 9 or other prefix first, and must alert someone on site or at a central desk when a 911 call goes out.
- RAY BAUM'S Act adds dispatchable location: the street address plus the floor, suite, or room. Fixed desk phones had to send it automatically by January 6, 2021. Softphones, Wi-Fi handsets and remote users followed on January 6, 2022.
- The rule follows the phone, not the billing address. A hosted phone system with one address on file for twelve locations is the most common gap we find.
- The fix is an inventory and a test, not a new contract. Map every site, floor and user to a location, then place a test call with your local 911 center.
Why this law exists
Kari's Law is named for Kari Hunt, who was killed in a Texas motel room in 2013. Her nine-year-old daughter tried to call 911 four times from the room phone. The calls never went through, because the phone system wanted a 9 first and nobody had told her. Congress passed the law in 2018 and the FCC wrote the rules in 2019.
The same rulemaking carried out Section 506 of RAY BAUM'S Act, which deals with the other half of the problem. Getting through to 911 is step one. Step two is the dispatcher knowing where to send help. A street address is not enough when your building has four floors, or when your company has nine buildings and every phone says headquarters.
Most of the businesses we talk to have long since fixed the dial-9 issue. The location piece is where multi-site companies still slip, usually without knowing it.
What the federal rules actually require
These apply to multi-line telephone systems, the kind found in offices, campuses, clinics and hotels. Cloud and hosted phone systems count.
Direct 911 dialing
Since February 16, 2020, any system sold, leased or installed must let a user dial 911 with no prefix or access code. Older systems are grandfathered for this part, but most have been replaced since.
On-site notification
When someone dials 911, the system has to alert a place where a person is likely to see or hear it: a front desk screen, a security console, a text or an email to an admin. It must not delay the 911 call itself.
Fixed phones send location
Since January 6, 2021, wired desk phones on premises must send automated dispatchable location: the validated street address plus floor, suite or room.
Mobile and remote users
Since January 6, 2022, softphones, Wi-Fi handsets and off-site users must send automated location when technically feasible. If not, they can use a location the user updates, or other location data good enough to find them.
The rules land on the people who make, sell, install, manage and operate these systems. If your company runs its own phone system, even one hosted by a provider, part of that responsibility is yours. You can read the FCC's own summary on its MLTS 911 requirements page.
Where multi-site companies get it wrong
The rule follows the phone, not the invoice. That sounds simple until you look at how most hosted systems get set up. A project team ports the numbers, builds the call flows, and enters one emergency address because that is what the order form asked for. Every new site gets added to the same tenant. Two years later, the warehouse, the branch office and the clinic across town all send the headquarters address to 911.
Here is what we see most often:
- One emergency address on file for every location, usually the billing address.
- No floor or suite detail, even in buildings with several floors.
- Softphone and laptop users who work from home or move between sites, with no location update set up.
- A notification alert that goes to a mailbox nobody reads, or to someone who left the company.
- New sites from an acquisition still on their old system, which nobody has tested.
None of this shows up on a bill. It only shows up on the worst day.
How to check every site this month
You do not need a new phone system to do this. You need a list and an afternoon of test calls.
List every site and floor
One row per building, per floor or suite. Include the address exactly as the post office has it. Acquisitions and small branches count.
Match phones to locations
Pull the location profiles from your phone platform. Every desk phone and every network subnet should map to a row on your list, not to headquarters.
Set up remote users
Turn on location prompts or automatic location for softphones and Wi-Fi handsets. Tell remote staff what the prompt is for so they do not just click past it.
Test and log it
Ask your local 911 center how they want test calls handled, or use your provider's address read-back number. Test one phone per location profile, and check that the on-site alert fires.
Keep the list with the rest of your telecom inventory so it gets updated when sites open, close or move. One sheet, one owner: multi-site telecom management. If you are moving offices, put 911 on the move checklist next to the circuit order: order the circuit before the furniture.
How Buckeye helps
We've been an independent advisor since 2003 and we're in Sugar Grove, Ohio. We help businesses with more than one location, anywhere in the US, choose phones, internet and security across carriers, and we handle the switch. We carry no products and no delivery team. You hold the contract in your name.
Talk: map every site
Every building, floor, phone profile and remote user on one sheet, with what each one sends to 911 today. Gaps get flagged.
Compete: only if you need it
Most fixes are configuration with the provider you already have. If your platform cannot do it, we quote ones that can across carriers, and keeping what you have stays on the table.
Stay: re-check when things change
New site, office move, acquisition, a team that goes remote. We update the sheet and push the provider to fix the location profiles before the next test.
Questions we get on the first call
What does Kari's Law require of a business phone system?
What is dispatchable location?
What were the RAY BAUM'S Act deadlines?
Our phones are hosted in the cloud. Is that the provider's problem or ours?
How do we test 911 at each site without causing a problem?
What does Buckeye charge to check our 911 setup?
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