EMERGENCY CALLING

Deliver Emergency Phone Service

Set emergency addresses on phone numbers and make emergency calls.

Emergency Dispatcher | 1920s

Introduction

Emergency Phone Services

Voxology’s Emergency Calling service allows emergency calls placed via Voxology SIP Trunks to be routed to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) based on location. Voxology currently supports Enhanced 911 (E911) in the United States and Canada.

Enhanced 911

Emergency calls made from phone numbers that have a previously registered emergency address are automatically routed to the PSAP that serves the address on the phone number. During a 911 call, the dispatcher has immediate access to the physical address associated with the phone number without having to ask the caller.

Voxology charges an additional daily fee per phone number that has a validated emergency address. See Pricing for details.

NOTE: Emergency calls made from phone numbers without a registered address will be handled in accordance with our Terms of Service.

How It Works

Emergency Phone Number Capability

Enhanced 911 (E911) service is currently available on all local United States and Canada phone numbers. You can add the emergency capability filter to your search of Voxology’s available numbers in either the portal or the API.

Emergency Service Address

Once you have a phone number that has the emergency capability, you must add a physical address to activate it. Without a validated physical address, any call to an emergency number from that number will not be considered E911, and will be treated accordingly.

The emergency service addresses can be validated and assigned to a phone number through the Portal or through the API.

NOTE: Without an emergency service address, the emergency capability will not be active on the number.

Address Validation

In order to successfully save an emergency address on a phone number, it needs to be validated with the Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) database. To help validate an emergency service address, Voxology offers address validation which will return suggestions to match the MSAG, or even a list of alternative addresses if the address is not “valid”.

Address validation is part of the process in the Portal, and can be performed via the API as well.

Emergency Calling From Unregistered Phone Numbers

If you attempt to place an emergency call from a phone number without a verified emergency address, we may try to complete the call, and if so, major charges will be applied, per our Terms of Service.

Getting Started

Get started with the basics of Voxology's Emergency Calling Service.

Portal (UI)

Overview

This tutorial is a step-by-step guide to enabling emergency service on a Voxology number in the Portal

Prerequisites

Create an Account // Sign up for a Voxology Portal Account
Make a Payment // After you sign up, Make a Payment to start sending and receiving SMS messages
Provision Phone Number Tutorial // Make sure that you have completed the Provision Phone Number tutorial.

Tutorial

1. Validate and assign Emergency Address to Phone Number

You need to validate an address before assigning it to a phone number, we’ve combined the two steps into a single, easy to follow process.

In the left icon panel, click the keypad icon to expand the Phone Numbers panel.
Select Manage Numbers to navigate to the Manage Inbound Phone Numbers page.
Select the number to which you would like to assign an emergency address.
In the Inbound Phone Number Details page, navigate to the Emergency Address tab and click ADD ADDRESS.
A dialog will open, enter the address details and click VALIDATE.
The emergency address is now assigned to your number.

Note: In some cases, if the address you entered is not accurate or complete, we will ask to verify the corrected address or choose from multiple possible addresses.

2. Place A Test Call To "933" to Confirm

If the emergency address was correctly applied to your phone number, an automated voice will read the correct address to you.

API

Overview

This tutorial is a step-by-step guide to enabling emergency service on a Voxology number using Voxology’s API.

Prerequisites

Create an Account // Sign up for a Voxology Portal Account
Make a Payment // After you sign up, Make a Payment to start sending and receiving SMS messages
Provision Phone Number Tutorial // Make sure that you have completed the Provision Phone Number tutorial.

Tutorial

1. Validate Emergency Address

In order to assign an emergency address to a phone number you first need to validate the address using the Validate Emergency Address method.

Example Request

curl --X POST \
  https://api.voxolo.gy/v1/ValidateEmergencyAddress \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache' \
  -d '{
    "street_no": "18331",
    "street": "Von Karman AVE",
    "city": "Irvine",
    "region": "CA": 
    "country": "US": 
    "unit": "123"
    "postal_code": "92612"     
    }'

2. Assign Emergency Address to Phone Number

After you validate your Emergency Address and confirm its accuracy, it can be applied to a phone number using the Update Emergency Addresses method.

Example Request

curl --X POST \
  https://api.voxolo.gy/v1/EmergencyAddresses/{phone_number} \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache' \
  -d '{
    "street_no": "18331",
    "street": "Von Karman AVE",
    "city": "Irvine",
    "region": "CA": 
    "country": "US": 
    "unit": "123"
    "postal_code": "92612"     
    }'

You can view the full list of Voxology’s REST API methods in the api reference.

3. Place A Test Call To "933" to Confirm

If the emergency address was correctly applied to your phone number, an automated voice will read the correct address to you.