TechSmec.com

VoIP 911 Woes

August 28th, 2005

There is chaos in the States as the Federal Communications Commission attempts to tidy up the 911 situation affecting users of VoIP (Voice Over IP) telephone services.

As VoIP users can make telephone calls from wherever there is a high-speed internet connection, it is difficult to route 911 call to an appropriate operator. Usually the caller’s telephone number is used to direct the call to a local control centre, but with VoIP, the number is not tied to a physical location. There is also the problem that VoIP systems are dependent on factors such as the PC being switched on and the appropriate microphone hardware being available.

The FCC has given operators until November 28 to provide full 911 capability.

In a further complication, the FCC ruled that VoIP operators must contact their customers and obtain acknowledgement of the limitations of the 911 service. If a customer did not respond they were to be cut off on 30 August, but the FCC has just extended that deadline to September 28 after it became clear that hundreds of thousands of users would be affected after a poor response to the information campaign, but that the companies involved were, in the main, making every effort to obtain the required acknowledgement.

“During this additional period of time, the bureau expects that all interconnected VoIP providers that qualify for this extension will continue to use all means available to them to obtain affirmative acknowledgements from all of their subscribers,” the FCC said.

The irony of this situation is that a VoIP user who doesn’t respond by September 28 might try to make a 911 call on that day (which would have probably been correctly handled by their provider) and find that their service had been terminated. VoIP carriers argue that it is unfair to punish consumers simply for not acknowledging a failure on the part of the service of which they are a customer.

Entry Filed under: Online Life