Yesterday the FCC Commissioner said this...

Posts: 68 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 30, 2005 Posts: 68

Maybe we'll get 911 by law soon....

"Fourth, we have a real challenge with VOIP. A recent tragedy in Texas reminds us all that the stakes are very high. Press reports indicate that a family in Houston was attacked by a burglar last month. The father and mother were shot. While the attacker was still in the house, their daughter tried to dial 9-1-1 on their VOIP line and a recording informed her that 9-1-1 was not available. We are still gathering information on exactly what happened and on the circumstances of 9-1-1's unavailability. Let me be the first to say that I do not have a ready answer for the VOIP 911 question. Certainly we need to understand that VOIP doesn’t use the same technology as the circuit-switched network and this should be reflected in our rules. And we need to figure out when one player offers an application and another is a service provider. But let me also say this. This problem has to be fixed. And it has to be fixed soon. It is simply unacceptable that a child can pick up a phone and dial 9-1-1 to get the police in an emergency and instead she gets a recording saying that 9-1-1 is not available. A 9-1-1 call can be the single most important call that child, or any of us, ever makes. So it is our solemn and pressing obligation to make sure that it is available and that it works. I know you are working on this, and I want to commend NENA and the VON Coalition for the serious effort they are making to get us what the country needs. It is a partnership that can make a real difference. Keep up the good work; keep us posted; and let me know, please, how you think I can help the effort."

Posts: 318 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:51 am Post subject:

Maybe the FCC will start charging us 911 fees via our monthly Vonage bills...

Posts: 68 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 30, 2005 Posts: 68

otaku wrote:

Maybe the FCC will start charging us 911 fees via our monthly Vonage bills...

Would be fine by me.... 911 is well worth it, especially if you have kids.

Posts: 98 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 5:32 am Post subject:

Trek234 wrote:

Would be fine by me.... 911 is well worth it, especially if you have kids.

Agreed. As long as dialing 9-1-1 works I wouldn't mind paying the same fee as I paid with my landline and that I pay with my cell phone.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jan 28, 2005 Posts: 30

I also agree. That was one of the biggest concerns for my family.

Posts: 66 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 7:44 am Post subject:

I tested my 911 service about a two weeks ago just to satisfy my curiosity after hearing about the Houston ordeal. I reached my local emergency services desk with no problem. I also learned that the Houston incident was with a family that has Vonage service, but the 911 service activation was never initiated by the customer to Vonage. Vonage makes it crystal clear with red boldface font that you do not have 911 service until you activate it with them. Conveniently, the TV reporters and the rest of the media failed to mention that. Wink

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 7:46 am Post subject:

Yeah, the problem is that VOIP users shouldn't be getting charged the fee in the same way that POTS users were.

1) 911 fees were collected by States and distributed to local governments to implement emergency call centers. Significant issues exist regulating VOIP at the State level.

2) 911 fees support an archaic system where your physical address is retrieved from a database using a 10 digit phone number. While VONAGE can hook into this system it doesn't really fit it well. Because first VOIP calls do not use 10 digit phone numbers as identifiers, and second VOIP calls from the same account (be it a phone number or a SIP address) do not always originate from the same physical address.

Now, I don't have anything against Vonage supporting existing 911 services. But I would rather see all of the commercial VOIP carriers get together and develop a spec for SIP based 911 and start funding it before the government gets involved.

Yes, it is complicated, imagine the case of a SoftPhone using a hotspot. But plenty of work has been done to address possible solutions, all that is left is the will to implement it. And if VOIP is cheaper than POTS then VOIP E911 should be cheaper to operate that POTS E911 and still support the legacy POTS function.

In summary, VOIP E911 will be implemented using an international standard at some point. I would like to see Vonage spend their money and efforts doing that than temporarily patching into the existing POTS system.

Posts: 64 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 7:58 am Post subject:

I would pay a fee for 911 service too.
Maybe the VoIP services could somehow require 911 activation? Some of us are procrastinators, and this requirement would help ensure we are protected...
Another problem is if a VoIP customer moves... another potential problem!

Posts: 129 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:13 am Post subject:

How is the e911 working in Rhode Island?? Is that system really working?

Since VOIP works different, it does not really make sense to make it work like the existing 911 system, although it should work with it. Think about it. A similar problem exists will cellphones.

I think the only true way to have 911 service like it is on traditional POTS lines would to be having the calls crossreferenced back to the ISPs records. The best way to do this would be to have static IPs, but it could still work with dynamic IPs, although it would require additional work.

This way, no matter where the ATA or softphone was located, a physical location could be determined.... However, if the user was on a public wi-fi #, then it would act similar to the way it works on a cell phone. (Unless it was in a small wi-fi network like Barnes & Noble).

It's probably a lot harder to implement than meets the eye, but this is probably the correct path. How else can you ensure that the location is accurate?

Do you want to depend on volunteer activities to enable it?? What if someone hacked into another's account and changed the 911 notification info? It could happen.. Being that we are now using the public domain to transfer such information, there is too much room for foul play and error.

My 2 cents...

Posts: 206 · Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:43 am Post subject:

I disagree. It's just one more thing for the government to meddle with. I didn't even have a home phone until I got VoIP. Should they force me to in case I needed to dial 911?

Let it be my decision.