FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is a NENA Company Identifier?
NENA Company Identifiers (also known as Company IDs or CIDs) allow 9-1-1 centers to quickly identify the telephone company or access infrastructure provider responsible for a particular telephone number.

A Company ID is a three to five-character code that uniquely identifies a telephone (including SMS) or Voice-over-IP service provider.

How Do Company IDs improve public safety?

CIDs allow 9-1-1 centers to request emergency network services, such as busy line interrupt and call trace, when required to save lives and protect property. Additionally, CIDs help to ensure that accurate caller location information can be provided to 9-1-1 centers and first responders when a user calls 9-1-1. CIDs also facilitate timely restoration of service during certain network or equipment outages.

Who needs a Company ID?

Telephone companies, VOIP service providers, phone service resellers, wireless service providers (including SMS), private switch operators, VoIP positioning center operators, and certain third party data providers must have a CID to ensure timely and accurate provisioning of E9-1-1 location identification service.

Enterprise voice customers with multi-line telephone systems (including PBXs and IP-PBXs) may also be required by their transport service provider to establish a CID to ensure that 9-1-1 centers can reach a company appointed point of contact to provision caller location service or in the event of an emergency or network disruption.

How do 9-1-1 centers use Company IDs?

CIDs are initially used to help populate automatic location notification databases. They identify the data provider responsible for a particular location record. All 9-1-1 calls are delivered to 9-1-1 centers with CID information that call takers can use to confirm location information and gain access to technicians and other emergency contacts.

Why am I required to provide both a billing and an emergency contact?

Emergency contacts must be available to respond to inquiries from 9-1-1 centers on a 24-7-365 basis to support safety of life functions. The emergency contact is responsible for maintaining the CID record for accuracy. Billing contacts are responsible for account management. This person may be responsible for accounting functions, but may not have responsibility for emergency technical functions, hence the need for the additional emergency contact. In some cases, these will be the same person.

Can you provide more detailed and technical information on the Company ID?

Sure! Click here for additional info.

How much does a Company ID cost?

The following rates are for each ID registered and administered by NENA. Please note it is not necessary to be a NENA member to obtain a NENA Company ID. Once the NENA Company ID has been processed and assigned, NENA will invoice the company for the applicable fee.

**NENA's billing cycle for the company ID program is July 1 - June 30. We are not able to offer a pro-rated amount for your company ID subscription.**

My company's name changed. Do I have to do something?

When a company makes a change to its name due to a change in ownership, merger, etc., all Company IDs must be updated with current and accurate contact information.

What do the various Company ID statuses mean?

The following five statuses are used in the NENA Company ID database:

How do I apply for a Company ID?

Click here to fill out a request for a new Company ID.

How do I update an existing Company ID?

Click here to fill out a form requesting updates to an existing Company ID.

This is confusing. Can someone help me?

Yes! Send us an email at cidsupport@nena.org with your question and contact information and someone will get right back to you.