Assign E911 emergency addresses

Pair every phone number with the registered US or Canadian location that should travel with a 911 call, and keep that pairing accurate.

An E911 address is a street location registered with the carrier and attached to a phone number. When someone dials 911 from your phone system, the call presents one of your numbers, and the address registered on that number is the location that travels with the call. Getting this pairing right is the difference between responders arriving at the right building and arriving at the address someone typed in years ago.

Two rules shape everything on this page: an address belongs to a phone number, never to an extension or a desk phone, and Steer Phones registers the addresses while you decide which number gets which one.

Prerequisites

The intended phone system selected in the header.
A role that can manage phone numbers.
The location already registered as an E911 address for this phone system. The picker only offers addresses that belong to the system you are working in.

Understand the pairing

The E911 column on Settings > Phone Numbers > All Numbers reads Registered when a number has an address and None when it does not. The Compliance page turns the same data into a percentage: the share of active numbers that have an address. Inactive numbers are not counted, so the percentage can read 100% while an inactive number still has no address.

Because the pairing is per number, a phone system covering more than one site needs each site’s numbers pointed at that site’s address. Assigning the address of your head office to a number that rings at a branch sends responders to the head office.

The Emergency Phone Number field on the System Details page is a different setting entirely — it is where calls forward when the phone system is unreachable. It has nothing to do with 911 location.

Assign an address to a number

Open Settings > Phone Numbers > All Numbers.
Select Configure on the number.
Under E911 Emergency Address, choose the address for the place that number rings. Each entry reads as a name followed by the street, city, state or province, and postal code, so two sites are easy to tell apart. Choose None to clear the pairing.
Select Save.
Return to the list and confirm the E911 column now reads Registered.

Repeat for every active number. A number that shows None contributes nothing but risk.

What happens on a 911 call

The call is never blocked. It is dialed out even when caller ID cannot be resolved.
The address registered on the presented number is the location that goes with the call. An extension’s own outbound caller-ID override is not used for emergency calls, so it is the phone system’s numbers — not each extension’s preference — that must carry correct addresses.
A return call is routed straight back to the phone that dialed. For 60 minutes after an emergency call, an incoming call to the number that was presented bypasses your normal routing, menus, and schedules, and rings the extension that placed the call. A call arriving at your main number and ringing one desk shortly after a 911 call is this window working as intended. The full mechanics of the window are described in How an incoming call is routed.
An alert can be raised. Where a phone system has an Emergency 911 notification rule, it is listed on Settings > Notifications > Rules with an Emergency 911 trigger. You can see the rule and what it does; it is not editable from the dashboard.

Canadian numbers

Address support covers the United States and Canada only.

Use a valid state or province abbreviation. US ZIP codes are five digits with an optional four-digit suffix; Canadian postal codes use the A1A 1A1 pattern.
A Canadian number must always keep a Canadian emergency address. Clearing the address on a Canadian number, or selecting an address registered in another country, is rejected — the message says the number must keep a Canadian Emergency Address. This also means a Canadian number cannot be removed the usual way, because removal requires unassigning the address first; ask Steer Phones to handle it.

Keep addresses accurate

The address list is maintained by Steer Phones, so tell your Steer Phones contact whenever the facts change:

You move a site, open one, or close one.
A number starts ringing at a different building than it used to.
A suite, floor, or building name changes. Include that detail when you give Steer Phones an address — a street address alone can leave responders searching a large site.

Expected result

Every active number reads Registered in the E911 column, each pointing at the address of the place it actually rings, and the E911 figure on the Compliance page reads 100%.

Troubleshooting

No addresses available: None are registered for this phone system yet. Ask Steer Phones to register the site. Saving a business address on the System Details page does not register an E911 address or assign one to a number.
The address you want is not in the list: The picker only offers addresses registered to the phone system in the header. Confirm you are in the right system, then ask Steer Phones to register the missing location.
Country mismatch: The message says the selected address is registered to a different country. Pick an address in the same country as the number.
The change is still processing: A previous registration or unregistration for that number has not finished at the carrier. Wait and retry once rather than switching the selection repeatedly.
The change would affect emergency calling: The message asks you to contact support. The number or address you are changing supplies the identity your phone system uses for 911 and no eligible replacement exists. Contact Steer Phones.
A number cannot be removed: Unassign its emergency address first. Canadian numbers are the exception — they cannot be left without one.
The E911 percentage did not move: Confirm the number is active and the change saved, then reload. Only active numbers count toward the figure.