Emergency calling
Regional availability
This feature is only functional for agents based in the following supported countries:
Australia • Austria • Brazil • Canada • France • Germany • Ireland • Italy • Malaysia • New Zealand • Philippines • Slovenia • Thailand • United Kingdom • United States
Overview
Service requirement & compatibility
Provisioning: You must submit a request to Vonage to provision dedicated lines. These lines are reserved exclusively for emergency calling and cannot be used for standard inbound or outbound traffic.
Interface Support: Emergency calling is optimized for softphone interfaces only.
VDI Limitation: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environments are not supported for this feature.
The emergency calling feature enables agents to reach emergency services and handle critical callbacks directly in VCC, for both ContactPad and Intelligent Workspace users. The system utilizes location-based routing and automated presence management to ensure emergency calls are handled with the highest priority.
Additionally, the feature enables the first responders to return an emergency call to the agent who initially made it, so that they can re-establish contact if the call is disconnected.
Call handling & connectivity
Warning
If the dialled number does not match the configured location, the call fails to connect.
Making calls and location-based routing
Agents can initiate an emergency call manually or by using Click-to-Dial. The system automatically validates the dialed number against the agent's physical location set in User Admin (for example, 999 for a UK-based agent).Manual dialling: Use the Make Call dialogue to initiate the call.
Click-to-Dial: Emergency calls can be launched directly from the agent's call history or any click-to-dial interface. This includes call history for rapid redialing if a connection is dropped.
First Responder Callbacks: If an agent has a personal or shared emergency line assigned, they can receive inbound calls from emergency services (for example, if a first responder needs to reconnect).
Prerequisites
Address validation
To ensure compliance and routing accuracy, the system checks for a configured physical address in User Admin. If an agent is assigned a personal emergency line but has not yet set their address, the system displays a toast notification alert.
See Configuration details to learn how to set the address.Line assignment
The inbound callback functionality is available only to agents who an administrator has assigned a personal or shared emergency line.
Configuration details
To access emergency call settings, go to Personal settings > WebRTC options, where you can:
Provide and submit a personal emergency address (requires the approval of Twilio) that matches your physical location.
Check the status of the agent’s location.
Choose between a personal and shared line (if assigned to both by a supervisor).
Active emergency mode
When emergency mode is initiated, the system prioritizes the agent's ability to communicate with first responders and prevents standard contact center traffic from interfering.
System behavior & capacity
Route Protection
To ensure the agent remains available for the emergency, the system creates a placeholder interaction. This occupies the agent’s capacity, so no further inbound customer calls are routed to them during the emergency interaction.Extended Wrap-Up
The interaction wrap period is automatically set to 24 hours to ensure that the agent has enough time to manage the situation without the system timing out.Address Alerts
If an agent is assigned a personal emergency line but has not yet configured their physical address, a toast notification appears as a reminder to update their settings.