Numbers, Porting & Regulatory
RAY BAUM'S Act
By Myroslav Orshak · operates licensed carrier infrastructure · Updated September 2026
RAY BAUM'S Act requires business phone systems to send a dispatchable location with every 911 call — a street address plus the specific detail, like floor or suite, that lets responders find the caller inside the building.
How it works
A street address alone is enough for a house and useless in a twelve-story office tower. This law closed that gap. When someone dials 911 from a business phone, the location sent must be precise enough for responders to find them. That means the address plus whatever inside detail applies: suite 400, third floor, west building.
In practice, compliance means keeping location data current per phone rather than per company. In a cloud phone system that's a field on each user or device, and the work is organizational: when someone moves desks between floors or a remote employee relocates, the record has to follow them. The requirement covers fixed phones as of January 2021 and non-fixed ones — laptops, mobile apps, anything that moves — as of January 2022.
Why it matters
It's the difference between an ambulance arriving at your building and paramedics finding the person who needs them. For businesses on multiple floors, in office parks, or with remote staff, this is the rule most likely to be quietly broken. Usually the system can do it; nobody updated the records after the last office reshuffle.
The unglamorous best practice: review registered locations whenever you review anything else about your phone system, and make address confirmation part of onboarding for every new and relocating employee.
Dispatchable location requirements took effect January 6, 2021 for fixed multi-line telephone systems, and January 6, 2022 for non-fixed systems — including softphone apps on laptops and mobile devices that move between locations.
Related terms
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Compare business phone systems →Frequently asked questions
What counts as a dispatchable location?
The validated street address plus additional information needed to find the caller inside it — floor, suite, room, or building name where applicable. For a single-story storefront the street address alone may suffice; for a multi-floor office or a campus, the internal detail is the point of the rule.
How does this work for employees who work from home?
Each remote user needs their own home address registered on their phone or app, updated if they move. Most platforms prompt users to confirm their emergency address when signing in from a new location — make sure that prompt isn't being dismissed, because a stale address is worse than an obvious blank one.
Who is responsible for compliance — me or my phone provider?
Shared, and the split matters. Your provider must supply the capability to store and transmit dispatchable location; you must keep the data accurate for your people and places. A modern cloud platform hands you compliant tooling, and stale records in it are your exposure, not theirs.
What's the difference between this and Kari's Law?
Kari's Law is about reaching 911 at all — dial it directly, no prefix, and alert someone on site. RAY BAUM'S Act is about what 911 learns when you do — a location precise enough to find you. They were implemented together and any current business phone system supports both; the work on your side is configuration and record-keeping.