E911 With Multiple Offices: Who Registers What

E911 for multiple locations is registered per site and per number, never once per account. You supply a street address for each office, it is validated against the dispatchable-location database, and every number and handset is associated with the site where it physically sits. Moving a phone between offices does not move its registered address.

That last sentence is the one that causes incidents, so the rest of this article is mostly about ownership: which step is yours, which is ours, and where the handoff fails.

Who is responsible for registering E911 addresses?

Both parties, at different points, and neither can do the other's part.

We built address validation into number purchase rather than leaving it for later, because a number that can dial 911 with no address behind it fails at the moment nobody is checking. But validation only confirms that an address is real and routable. It cannot tell us the phone you assigned to it is actually in that building.

Does E911 register per location or per phone number?

Per location and per number. They are two different associations and both have to be right.

A location is a validated street address, including secondary detail — suite, floor, unit — where the building needs it. A phone number is associated with a location so a 911 call originating from it reports that address. A device is associated with a location so the handset on a desk reports the address of the room it is in.

In a single-office business those collapse into one answer. In a three-clinic practice they diverge immediately: one main number rings all three sites, each site has direct numbers, and a provider's extension appears on handsets in two buildings. Each needs its own answer.

The E911 locations guide covers how locations, extensions, and devices are tied together in the portal, and E911 address problems covers what to do when validation rejects an address that you know exists.

What happens if I move a phone to another office?

The phone keeps reporting its old registered address until someone changes the record. Nothing about the move updates it.

This is not a Signal limitation — it is how VoIP works. A desk phone is a computer with a SIP registration, and it registers identically from any network in the world. There is no physical circuit tying it to a jack in a wall, which is the entire reason E911 exists as a separate registration.

The consequence is concrete. A handset carried from the north clinic to the south clinic during a remodel reports the north address. An ambulance goes to the north address. The patient is at the south one.

Make the location update part of the move procedure, at the same priority as plugging the phone in. If your offices shuffle equipment, audit the device list by location quarterly; the go-live checklist has the same audit in its pre-launch form.

What counts as a separate location for E911?

Any address a dispatcher would need to be given differently. That is the working test.

Concretely, create a separate location when:

1. The street address differs. Obvious, and the easy case.
2. The suite, floor, or unit differs within one building large enough that a responder would have to search. A single-tenant storefront does not need floor detail. A phone on the fourth floor of a medical office building does.
3. The building is separate but the address is shared — a campus with multiple structures under one street number. Add the building identifier to the location detail.
4. The site is temporary but staffed — a satellite office, a seasonal clinic. Temporary does not exempt it.

Over-splitting creates its own maintenance burden, so skip room-level detail. The goal is a description that gets a responder to the right door without asking anyone. Remote employees are a separate problem, because a home address changes without telling you — E911 for remote employees covers it.

What does Kari's Law require at each site?

Two things, at every site, on every phone: 911 must dial directly with no prefix, and someone on the premises must be notified when it is dialed.

Direct dialing means a user picks up a handset, dials 911, and the call goes. No 9, no 8, no outside-line digit. Signal's dialplan routes 911 ahead of every other pattern and does not consult per-extension dialing permissions to do it — an extension restricted to internal calls only still reaches emergency services. That is deliberate and not configurable.

The notification half gets forgotten more often. The point is that a manager on site learns immediately that someone in the building called 911, so they can unlock a door or direct responders to the right hallway. Signal notifies designated administrators when 911 is dialed; configure recipients per site rather than as one company-wide list, because an alert reaching headquarters helps nobody standing in the branch lobby. Notification workflows covers the setup.

RAY BAUM'S Act is the companion obligation, and it is what this article is really about: the dispatchable location conveyed with the call has to be specific enough to find the caller. Kari's Law and RAY BAUM'S Act covers both statutes in depth.

A short multi-location checklist

1. List every physical address where a company phone lives, including satellite and seasonal sites.
2. Create a location per address, with suite or floor detail where a responder would need it.
3. Assign every phone number to the location it serves.
4. Assign every device to the location where the handset sits.
5. Set 911 notification recipients per site, and confirm they are people who are actually in that building.
6. Add "update the E911 location" to your phone-move and office-move procedures in writing.
7. Test with 933, not 911 — it reads back the number and registered address the system would send.

Frequently asked questions

Who is responsible for registering E911 addresses, me or my provider?

Both. You supply the address for each site and assign numbers and devices to it. Signal validates it against the dispatchable-location database and delivers it with the call. Neither side can do the other's part, and the accuracy of "which phone is in which building" is entirely yours.

Does E911 register per location or per phone number?

Both. A location holds the validated street address; each phone number and each device is associated with a location. In a single office those collapse into one answer. Across multiple sites they diverge, and each association has to be set correctly on its own.

What happens if I move a phone to another office?

It reports the old address until someone updates the record. A VoIP handset registers identically from any network, so there is no physical link between the device and a street address other than the one you entered. Make the update part of the move procedure.

What does Kari's Law require at each site?

Direct 911 dialing with no prefix digit, and notification to someone on the premises when 911 is dialed. Signal routes 911 ahead of all other patterns and ignores dialing permissions doing so. Set notification recipients per site so the alert reaches someone in that building.

If you are running phones across more than one address, send us the list of sites and we will walk the location and number assignments with you before anything goes live.