Setting up emergency response locations (ERL/ELIN)


Zoom Phone supports nomadic emergency services to provide granular caller location data in the event of an emergency call. US and Canada Zoom PSTN carriers support the next generation emergency call signaling to support nomadic emergency location data to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). However, many other countries and BYOC carriers do not support next generation emergency call signaling and require support for ERL and ELIN (Emergency Response Location and Emergency Location Identification Number).

Account owners and admins can enable nomadic emergency services for countries and/or BYOC carriers that rely upon the outgoing caller ID of an emergency call to determine the caller’s address (ERL and ELIN). Administrators can assign a predetermined phone number (ELIN) to each detectable company location or sub-location (ERL). When a Zoom Phone subscriber initiates an emergency call from a location, this ELIN number is used as the outgoing caller ID for the emergency call. In turn, the carrier ensures that the corresponding ERL is reported to the PSAP.

This article covers:

Prerequisites for configuring ERL and ELIN for nomadic emergency services

Locations that require an ELIN

An ELIN is required for the following locations:

ELINs are unnecessary and irrelevant for locations inside the US or Canada when Zoom is your carrier for emergency calls. We do not recommend using BYOC carriers for emergency calling in the US/Canada; you should use Zoom for routing your US or Canada emergency calls.

Note: Zoom recommends that BYOC customers with nomadic emergency services enable the option to use Zoom as their emergency call carrier for US/Canada numbers.

You are required to assign an ELIN to newly defined locations that meet the above criteria. Locations that have do not already have an assigned ELIN but really do need one, will be reported on the Lack of ELIN tab. Locations that may have been assigned an ELIN but don’t actually need one will be reported on the Redundant ELIN tab.

How to manage locations that lack an ELIN

Once nomadic emergency services is enabled, all emergency locations/sub-locations for that site that have a non US/Canada emergency address, or are served by a BYOC carrier, must contain an ELIN. Follow this section to assign ELINs for locations where they are required. Assigning ELINs will help the Public Safety Answering Point determine the location’s address when an emergency call is placed from this location.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Company Info.
  3. Follow one of these options depending on if you have multiple sites:
    • If you enabled multiple sites: Click the name of the site you want to edit, then click the Settings tab.
    • If you disabled multiple sites: Click Account Settings.
  4. Click the Emergency Services tab.
  5. Scroll down to the Nomadic Emergency Services section and make sure you've set up nomadic emergency services.
  6. Click Manage Locations.
  7. Click the Lack of ELIN tab.
  8. (Optional) If you enabled personal locations, click the Personal Location tab.
  9. In the ELIN column, click Set for a location.
    You will see a pop-up to choose a number as the ELIN.
  10. Select a number as the ELIN for the location.
    The number must be set to support incoming and outgoing calling; and it must be stable (status is normal). Manage your phone numbers if you don't see any numbers listed.
  11. Click Confirm.
  12. Repeats steps 9 to 11 for the other locations that don't have an ELIN.

Note:

If you're using Zoom native numbers as ELINs then no further action is needed. Zoom will update the public address of record for each phone number used as an ELIN to match the emergency address you've defined for the corresponding location.This can take about a week for the process to complete.

If you're using BYOC numbers as ELINs for any locations, make sure your carrier updates the public address of record for each phone number used as an ELIN to match the emergency address you've defined for the corresponding location:

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Phone Numbers.
  3. Click the Assigned tab.
  4. In the Assigned to drop-down menu, select Company Location to filter numbers that are assigned to company locations.
  5. Click Export to download the list as a CSV file.
  6. In the Assigned to drop-down menu, select Personal Location to filter numbers that are assigned to personal locations.
  7. Click Export to download the list as a CSV file.
  8. Provide both lists to your carrier for any numbers not sourced by Zoom.

How to manage redundant ELINs

You may notice redundant ELINs if you were part of the beta program and assigned ELINs to US or Canada addresses.

Redundant ELINs are no longer required so follow these steps to unbind redundant ELINs. Unbound ELINs will become unassigned numbers.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Company Info.
  3. Follow one of these options depending on if you have multiple sites:
    • If you enabled multiple sites: Click the name of the site you want to edit, then click the Settings tab.
    • If you disabled multiple sites: Click Account Settings.
  4. Click the Emergency Services tab.
  5. Scroll down to the Nomadic Emergency Services section and make sure you've set up nomadic emergency services.
  6. Click Manage Locations.
  7. Click the Redundant ELIN tab.
  8. (Optional) If you enabled personal locations, click the Personal Location tab.
  9. Click Unbind to unbind all redundant ELIN at the same time. Alternatively, to bind a single ELIN, click the ellipses icon (...) next to an ELIN, then click Unbind.
  10. Click Unbind to confirm.

How to test ERL and ELIN

Follow these steps to test ERL/ELIN is working properly using a test site.

Warning: This section involves calling a PSAP (for example, 9-1-1) to test your ERL/ELIN setup. Follow these steps carefully to set up emergency calling so that calls are routed to an internal safety team before routing to the PSAP.

Note for BYOC: Before testing, confirm that the public address of record for the phone number that you have assigned as an ELIN for a location matches the emergency address that you configured for the location.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Create a test site.
  3. Set up nomadic emergency services and emergency addresses for the test site.
  4. Set up emergency calling. Make sure to follow this setup:
    1. Enable settings to route emergency call to a PSAP
    2. Enable setting to route emergency call to Internal Safety Response team. In the Emergency call handling drop-down menu, select the option to route to an internal safety response team first, then route to PSAP after the Max Holding Time.
    3. In the Max Holding Time drop-down menu, select the highest max holding time allowed.
  5. Place an emergency call and be sure to answer it from the safety team queue before the overflow time expires.
  6. View the Zoom Phone call logs to check the outbound caller ID number for the call. That number needs to match the ELIN for the location you called from.