LearnMicrosoft Teams › 5 · Calling & Enterprise Voice

Emergency calling

The one Teams feature where a config error has a body count. Dynamic emergency calling exists to answer a single question correctly under pressure: WHERE is this caller right now?

The problem dynamic emergency solves

A nomadic softphone breaks the old assumption that a phone number implies an address. Teams' answer is layered:

  1. Registered (static) address — every Calling Plan/OC number carries a validated civic address (LIS). The fallback truth.
  2. Dynamic location — the client maps its NETWORK evidence to a location you pre-seeded in the Location Information Service: subnets, Wi-Fi BSSIDs, switch chassis/ports → building/floor/room. Right subnet = right floor sent to the PSAP, automatically.
  3. Emergency call routing policies — which numbers are 'emergency' per country (112/999/911), how they route (Calling Plans/OC: carrier-handled; Direct Routing: TeamsEmergencyCallRoutingPolicy must route them — YOU own this), plus TeamsEmergencyCallingPolicy for notifications (alert security desk on any emergency call, listen-in options).

The build, in order

Seed LIS with the real network (export from IPAM/Wi-Fi controller; civic addresses validated) → assign emergency calling + routing policies (per site via network sites where needed) → for DR: emergency usages/routes FIRST in every relevant policy → test per country procedure → repeat LIS upkeep on every office move (the step that decays).

Failure signatures

Symptom Cause
Emergency call routes but with HQ address for a branch caller LIS has no mapping for the branch subnet — fallback to registered address
DR user's 999 fails outright Emergency numbers not matched by any usage/route in their policy — the fatal misconfig
Security desk never notified TeamsEmergencyCallingPolicy notification unset for that population
Works on ethernet, wrong floor on Wi-Fi BSSID mappings missing/stale after AP refresh
Remote-worker calls carry office address No dynamic match off-network → registered address; user-confirmed address features fill the gap — brief users

What to watch (proofs)

  • The location database: Get-CsOnlineLisLocation, -LisSubnet, -LisWirelessAccessPoint, -LisSwitch — coverage vs your real network inventory; the delta is your risk map.
  • Policy census: Get-CsTeamsEmergencyCallingPolicy and Get-CsTeamsEmergencyCallRoutingPolicy (both scanned nightly) — notifications and number handling per population; drift here should page someone.
  • The client's belief: Teams client Settings > Calling shows the emergency address the client currently claims — spot-check per site/floor during walkthroughs.
  • Test evidence: recorded test calls per country procedure with PSAP-confirmed (or test-service-confirmed) location, kept with dates — the audit artifact that matters.

PowerShell for this concept

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