E911 setup with Telnyx — register your physical address for 911 dispatch

In the United States, every phone number capable of making a 911 call must have a registered physical address that emergency dispatchers receive when the call comes in. For traditional landlines this happens at the carrier level automatically; for VoIP-originated calls (your hosted PBX falls in this category), you have to register the address explicitly per DID. This article walks the E911 setup process on Telnyx, the rules to follow, and the test you should run to confirm everything works.

Why this matters legally

Three US laws apply:

• Kari's Law (2017): multi-line telephone systems must allow direct 911 dialing without a prefix (no "9 for outside line then 911"). Your PBX must let users dial 911 straight.
• RAY BAUM'S Act § 506 (2018): VoIP services must convey a "dispatchable location" (room, floor, suite — not just the street address) when a 911 call is made.
• FCC rules: VoIP providers must collect and transmit accurate location info; failures can be tens of thousands of dollars per incident.

If you're hosting a business PBX with multiple physical sites or multiple suites, every endpoint needs the correct dispatchable location. The penalty for getting this wrong is not just regulatory — emergency response goes to the wrong address.

Telnyx E911 — how it works

Telnyx assigns each DID an E911 address. When a 911 call comes in from that DID, Telnyx routes it to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) that serves the registered address, and includes the address in the ANI/ALI data the dispatcher sees.

You pay a small monthly E911 fee per provisioned DID (a few dollars), and per-use fees only if there's a 911 call (rare). The recurring fee is regulatory, not Telnyx's discretion.

Setting up E911 on a Telnyx DID

1. In the Telnyx portal: Numbers → My Numbers.
2. Click the DID you want to register.
3. Go to the Emergency Services tab.
4. Click Add Emergency Address.
5. Fill in:
   • First name / Last name of the primary contact for that location.
   • Address Line 1: street address.
   • Address Line 2: suite, floor, department — the dispatchable location detail. This is the RAY BAUM compliance piece.
   • City, State, ZIP, Country: the rest of the address.
6. Telnyx validates the address against USPS. If it doesn't match, it'll suggest a correction; pick the right one.
7. Save and Enable Emergency Services on the DID.

Allow ~5 minutes for the registration to propagate to Telnyx's 911 routing partner.

Hosting a multi-location business

If a single PBX serves multiple physical sites, each location needs its own DID and its own E911 registration. The 911 dispatch goes to whatever DID was used as the caller ID for the outbound 911 call.

Patterns:

• One DID per location: simplest. Each site has a local DID with its own E911 address. Phones at that site use that DID as their caller ID for outbound (including 911).
• One DID per extension: more granular. Each employee's mobile-extended phone has its own DID and E911-registered location. Common in larger orgs.
• Single main DID with floor/suite as Address Line 2: works only if there's truly one address; multi- building campuses need separate DIDs per building.

Avoid: one main DID covering multiple physical sites. That's non-compliant with RAY BAUM's Act because dispatch can't know which site.

Configuring the PBX side