911 Assistance
At NextPhone, your safety is essential. Because VoIP phones differ in the way they connect to emergency services, we provide an alternate means of communication in times of emergency.
To improve your safety, all subscribers are required to fill out a short form during the sign up process that tells us the street address where you will be using your NextPhone service. This is called your Service Address.
When you dial 911, your telephone number and registered address are simultaneously sent to the local emergency center assigned to your location, and emergency operators have access to the information they need to send help and call you back if necessary.
Customers in locations where the emergency center is not equipped to receive your telephone number and address have basic 911. With basic 911, the local emergency operator answering the call will not have your call back number or your exact location, so you must be prepared to provide your phone number and address.
Until you give the operator your phone number, he/she may not be able to call you back or dispatch help if the call is not completed or is not forwarded, is dropped or disconnected, or if you are unable to speak. During a 911 call, you will need to state the nature of your emergency promptly and clearly, including a callback number and location.
Emergency 911 Disclaimer:
NextPhone service does not support traditional 911 or E911 access to emergency services in some service areas. Emergency response service centers may not be able to accept 911 calls from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) customers, including NextPhone customers.
Therefore, you must maintain an alternate means of requesting emergency services. The limited emergency response service (“Limited Emergency Response Service”) provided by NextPhone allows you to dial 911 to reach your designated emergency response service center (to the extent that the center will accept emergency calls from NextPhone customers) but differs in a number of important ways from traditional emergency response services.
When registering for NextPhone, every new customer must provide a Service Address where the NextPhone service will be used. If you dial 911, the local emergency response service personnel receiving your call will not be able to identify your phone number or the physical address from which you are calling. Therefore you must have a service address on file for emergency access. During a 911 call, you will need to state the nature of your emergency promptly and clearly, including your telephone number and location.
Anytime a customer accesses NextPhone from a different location, the customer must update their Service Address by contacting NextPhone at (888) 396-6178. If you use NextPhone service from a location other than the Service Address that you have registered with NextPhone (e.g., if you move or use the service while you are traveling) any emergency calls you make will not be routed to the correct local emergency service provider.
The individual answering the call may not be able to call you back or find your location if the call is unable to be completed, is dropped or disconnected, or if you are unable to tell them your phone number and physical location and/or if the service is not operational for any reason.
NextPhone’s Limited Emergency Response Service will not function during a power outage or if your broadband connection is not available. Network congestion might result in reduced speed for routing 911 calls compared to 911 calls over the traditional public telephone network.