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| VoIP 911 deadline extended again |
| Monday, August 29, 2005 at 08:48 by Rich Kavanagh |
Communications regulators the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have given Internet telephone service providers another month for their customers to acknowledge their awareness of the limitations of dialing 911 from a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) based telephone.
The main concern of the FCC is that VoIP consumers are unaware that dialing 911 from a VoIP based telephone may not always connect them to the emergency services.
The FCC released an order on June 3, requiring VoIP service providers to provide 911 capabilities to their subscribers no later than 120 days from the effective date of the order. Additionally, all providers of VoIP services were required by July 29 to specifically advise every subscriber of the circumstances under which the 911 service may not be available through the VoIP service. They were also instructed to obtain and keep a record of affirmative acknowledgement by every subscriber of having received and understood the advisory described and to distribute warning stickers to be placed on equipment used that may have an impaired 911 service.
Then on July 26, the FCC released a Public Notice stating that it would delay, until August 30, any enforcement action against any provider of VoIP services regarding the affirmative acknowledgement requirement, if the provider filed a report by August 10, detailing its progress toward satisfying the customer advisory.
The FCC further stated its expectation that VoIP providers would disconnect, by August 30, all subscribers from whom it had not received affirmative acknowledgements.
On August 10, the FCC reviewed numerous reports filed by VoIP providers. The reports demonstrated the significant efforts made by providers in complying with the affirmative acknowledgement requirement. As a result of its review of these reports, the FCC determined that it will not now initiate enforcement action, until September 28, 2005.
There are an estimated 2.5 million VoIP customers in the U.S. alone, meaning that even if 90% of them responded by the August deadline, some 250,000 would still lose their service.
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| I don't think the UK has any regulations on VoIP calls?
OFCOM may advise differently though. |
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| I live in the USA. And, fact is, some VoIP providers (for example, Comcast) and are fully e911-compliant. In a free-market economy, we're supposed to let the "strong" companies survive and the "inferior" companies fall by the wayside. So, I'm hoping the FCC doesn't extend the final November 29th deadline for that reason ... and subsidize inferiority at the expense of companies already compliant. Sadly, though, it's a deadline that should have never happened.
If the FCC needs to mandate anything, it should be a two tier service level - BASIC (no 911) and ENHANCED (completely e911 compliant). The misunderstandings, lawsuits, and deadlines we now see today are the direct result of the FCC's inability to tackle this problem early on, leaving a confusing and variable "middle-ground" of 911 scenarios. And, they KNEW it was coming. Since some VoIP providers are already e911 compliant, a 2-tier scenario would allow market pressure, not mandates, to determine who offers what. And consumers wouldn't have cut-offs to worry about, they'd have 2 distinct "options" to consider - a provider who offers no 911 service at all, or a provider who offers 911 service as the term "911" is traditionally understood. When life is at stake, there is NO acceptable "middle-ground" for emergency service. |
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