When you make a 911 call from any phone in the United States, various mechanisms automatically determine your physical location. That location is used to send your call to the appropriate local 911 dispatch service, and is transmitted to that service to facilitate sending first responders to you.
U-M's Zoom Phone, which is designed to be portable, uses a variety of data to determine your physical location if you call 911. It uses both data that is associated with your device, your network, IP address, and WiFi network—and address information that you can enter using the Zoom Web portal.
- Enter your emergency address, and update it as you move your computer
- Enable location services on your device
The U-M phone system is built to perform the most accurate job possible of immediately providing emergency responders with a physical address of a 911 caller.
Note: The following does not apply to telephones provided by Michigan Medicine because it provides its own telephone system.
How Location Is Determined for 911 Services
| Device | Location | How your location is determined |
|---|---|---|
| Deskset | Campus | The phone’s location is determined by the network port it is attached to. This data is maintained by ITS. This occurs the same way on all three campuses. |
| Zoom App on mobile phone | Any location | The Zoom Phone app pushes the call to your phone’s native dialer, which makes the call using your carrier. The carrier determines your location. |
| Zoom App on laptop or desktop computer | Any location |
The following data sources are used in order (this occurs the same way on all three campuses):
|