September 19, 2005

By Staff

With the clock quickly ticking down, Level 3 Communications today signed voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) agreements covering enhanced 911 services with Vonage and TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) – with Vonage as a customer and TCS as a supplier. At the same time, Level 3 launched a new “E-911 Direct” offering it says supports both fixed location and nomadic capabilities that are Federal Communications Commission-compliant E911 solutions for interconnected VoIP providers.

The Level 3 deals with Vonage and TCS ostensibly are intrinsic to an earlier arrangement (TelecomWeb news break, July 26) in which Vonage contracted with TCS – whose specialty has been E911 services for the wireless industry – to run an E911 "fallback center" for 911 calls from VoIP customers who can't be automatically routed to correct official public service answering points (PSAP) that handle emergency calls. Level 3 claims network connections to PSAPs serving approximately 67 percent of all U.S. households, with a projected buildout to 70 percent by year’s end.

September 19, 2005

By Staff

Vonage Network, a subsidiary of Vonage Holdings, today said it has selected Level 3 Communications (LVLT) to enable critical components of Vonage's nomadic E-911 service. Terms were not disclosed.

September 19, 2005

By Dave Burstein

Redundancy creates reliability. Only a Vonage VOIP line connected the Mayor of New Orleans and the U.S. President when BellSouth went down. The cheapest and hence easiest new network to add is wireless. This should start ASAP, whether it’s a municipal build, a public-private partnership, an out of territory Bell, or Clear Wire as provider. Include a few batteries, of course, but make it happen. Finance it out of the public safety budget, or even better, out of the E-Rate.

September 19, 2005

By Staff

Vonage, the nation's largest provider of Internet-based phone services, has picked a subsidiary of Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications Inc. to help provide 911 services using Level 3's E-911 Direct service, the companies said this morning.

September 16, 2005

By Jonathan Krim

As crews rush to restore basic telephone and Internet services to areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, some executives, academics and analysts are urging a more ambitious approach: Make New Orleans and the surrounding areas super-connected communities, with advanced services that surpass what is available anywhere in the country, if not the world.

With many poles and wires reduced to sticks and spaghetti, cell towers down, miles of streets still flooded, and parts of the region uninhabitable for the near future, these experts see the perfect opportunity to deploy new systems that otherwise might be too expensive or disruptive to build.

The result, they say, could be a bonanza of higher technology at lower prices for businesses and consumers, more robust emergency-responder systems and an ability to provide high-speed Internet access to poorer segments of the population often left off of the information highway.

September 16, 2005

By David W. Gardner

VoIP enthusiasts say that Internet telephony played a wider role than may be generally appreciated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

VoIP delivered some important communications service after traditional landline and cell phone service collapsed, they insist, while complaining that VoIP providers should have been represented at Thursday’s FCC meeting at BellSouth facilities in Atlanta.

“Text messaging, e-mail, Web-obtained information, video blogs and other streaming media and other IP-based applications were instrumental in keeping people connected and informed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,” Jeff Pulver, a VoIP expert and creator of the Voice Over Net conferences, said in an e-mail.

September 16, 2005

By Staff

Community groups on the ground in areas hit by Katrina provide needed tech.

I have been coordinating remotely with a few groups on the ground who are working to connect people affected by Katrina to the Internet and to the phone system. Here's a report from afar.

There are a number of groups working together to provide Internet and VoIP telephone connectivity to people affected by Katrina.

CU Wireless, a project of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, has been helping coordinate project donations and has a mailing list.