AltiGen SIP Trunking customers can purchase E911 for DIDs on their SIP Trunks. This service correlates an address (specified in AltiGen ordering portal) to a purchased DID number for a low monthly rate. Each DID purchased can have unique address associated to it, so that even if all users on the system are at separate physical locations, they will still be able to have properly functioning E911 service.

Note that if calls to 911 are sent over AltiGen SIP Trunking with a transmitted caller ID that is not configured to have E911 service, the call will route to a generic 911 answering service. This will still work for emergency dispatch, however a significant fee will be assessed to the customer for each call to the generic 911 answering service, regardless of length of call or intent of call.

For this reason, it is strongly encouraged that all AltiGen SIP Trunks subscribe to E911 service on at least one DID, and that special attention be paid to configuring E911 caller ID when configuring extensions in MaxAdmin. An E911 configured DID should be set in the extension configuration of every extension to ensure that calls to 911 are sent with a number that has been configured for E911 service.

It is also important to note that only calls to numbers set as "Emergency" numbers will have E911 caller ID information sent.  For all systems where the country is set as "USA & Canada", "911" is defined as an Emergency number.  Because AltiGen SIP Trunks will also route calls to 1911 to the emergency call center, "1911" should be manually added to the list of emergency numbers on the Country Relevant tab of the System Configuration window.  If this is not done, and the user calls 9-911 (assuming that 9 is set as route access), then the call will route to generic 911 answering service, and the fee will be assessed. 

E911 CallerID Digit Length

Please send 10 digits as E911 CallerID. As an example, send 4085979000 not 14085979000.

Location Based E911 vs Extension Configured E911

In MaxCS 7.5 AltiGen introduced a location based E911 feature that can control the transmitted E911 caller ID based on the phone on which a user is logged in. This feature provides flexibility for mobile workers that move between multiple sites. The increased functionality that location based E911 does carry some additional configuration complexity. Use of location based E911 is not necessary if the users stay at a single site. If this is the case, simply use the E911 If users are mobile, use of the location based E911 is recommended.

Extension Based E911

Extension based E911 configuration is simple to set up and understand. Each extension in MaxCS has an "E911" field. This is the number that will be sent as the caller ID when 911 is dialed. If this is set to a DID that has E911 service, then the call can be routed to the correct public safety answering point.