What happens when I call 9-1-1 from a land-line?

Let’s say you’re in a situation where you’re injured, someone else is injured, there is a good chance of someone getting injured or someone is trying to injure or kill someone else. You’ve successfully found yourself in an emergency! So what do you do? You call 9-1-1.

If the phone you use to call 9-1-1 is plugged into a wall with a phone cord, you’re using a land-line. I’ll explain it a little more for those under 25 years old: If the phone your using doesn’t text, surf the internet, play music or play games, you’re probably using a land-line.

93% of the counties in the country operate E9-1-1 or Enhanced 9-1-1 service. So when you call 9-1-1 from a land-line phone, here’s what’s most likely going to happen:

Your call goes to a special 9-1-1 switch which then gets subscriber and location information for your phone number from the MSAG (Master Street Address Guide). Then your call, along with the data from the MSAG go to the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) that your address lists to.

When The Dispatcher Answers the Phone…

This is the information we receive:

Phone number that is placing the call
Class of phone (Residential, Business, Switchboard, Payphone, etc.)
Subscriber name
Address
Telephone Company

This is great! Before anyone says a word we know, with 99% accuracy, your phone number, your address, and the name of the household or business you’re calling from. We’re still going to ask you for your location, your name and your phone number though because 99% accuracy is not 100% accuracy.

This is what we see on our map:

That red phone shows us what address you’re calling from. Some of the information I mentioned above is shown in this program. The rest of the information goes to another program.

Conclusion

If you call 9-1-1 from a land-line telephone we will more than likely know where you’re calling from. We’re still going to ask you where you are because as someone who works at a desk with 5 computers attached to it, we have a healthy mistrust of technology.

Up Next: What happens when I call 9-1-1 from a cell phone?