As part of the process for assigning 911 addresses to certain extensions or locations, you should plan to make test calls, one per location or a unique user.
Step One: Call Your Local Police Department
The wrong thing to do is just straight up call 911 and hang up. That will get police knocking on your door to make sure everything is okay, which isn’t what you need.
So, the first thing you’ll need to do is call your local police department. Just give them a call on the non-emergency line to let them know what you’re doing. Tell them you want to test 911 emergency services on your new phone service. The more info, the better, but be brief. Again, these folks are busy.
They may or may not redirect you to a 911 call center so you can let them know what’s going on too. Sometimes these call centers have certain times of day for testing or require scheduled appointments. They need to handle important calls, so it is always best to respect their time and requirements.
Do your due diligence and call the police department before continuing.
Step Two: Call 911
Once everything is squared away, make your test call(s). As soon as the dispatcher answers and asks what your emergency is, let them know there is no emergency and this is just a test call. Also, let them know if you have more calls to make from the same location. With the initial conversation, you can just let them know you’re just making sure your phone performs as expected with 911 emergency services. Confirm the company name and address is correct for the number being sent over.
Step Three: Rest Easy (or Contact Your Phone’s Manufacturer)
If your call goes through properly, you can relax knowing that everything is covered in the case of an emergency. Congratulations.
If your call doesn’t go through, however, then you have a problem. You should immediately contact [email protected] and let us know what happened—this is likely a software setting that will need to be fixed immediately.