VoIP Providers Given 120 Days to Provide 911 Service 626
linuxwrangler writes "According to this SFGate article, federal regulators have given VoIP providers 120 days to provide 911 service to their customers. The vote came after testimony from people including a Florida woman who had her infant die after being unable to call 911 from her internet phone. VoIP providers are also required to notify their customers of the deadline and of the limitations of VoIP 911 service."
Now the question is... (Score:5, Interesting)
My cell phone works with 911 even if you cancel all other service to the phone. Does that mean broadband and Voip companies will have to do the same?
I always wondered why it was that my cell phone always has to have 911 access, yet Ma Bell can cut my service and I get no dial tone if I don't pay my bills.
One soloution (Score:4, Interesting)
It would be a short term soloution indeed , but then 120 days is a very short term
Implications for Skype? (Score:3, Interesting)
Run a trace route? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is like that russian pencil, Million dollar US space pen email I get all the time.
Re:120 days.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Only if IP's corresponded reliably to physical locations, which is broken to start with and gets even works when you start throwing in VPN's and tunnels.
Not ready for homes (Score:3, Interesting)
If it's not ready for the home, then it's not ready. VoIP should start with businesses. If you really want it in your house, I believe it should come with the understanding that 911 is either going to be suboptimal or just plain unreliable.
Re:120 days.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Just because you don't want to understand the technical limitations behind addressing a location-specific service to a non-location-specific service doesn't mean you can just wave your hands around and say "Make it so".
"the feds" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Libertarians? (Score:3, Interesting)
Case in point: Rather than passing laws that mandate "Emmisions must be below such-and-such a level", the federal government passed laws mandating that "All cars MUST be equipped with a catalytic converter". That's right, even if you can come up with a more effective, cheaper, and longer lasting method of reducing emmissions, your are still required to use a catalytic converter instead! I strongly suspect that the manufacturer of catalytic converters had a big part in lobbying for the catalytic converter law, just like the older phone companies had a huge part in bribe^H^H^H^H^H convincing the congresscritters to pass this new VoIP legislation.
911 is inefficient anyway (Score:2, Interesting)
911 is great for a visitor but if you live in a community, it is your duty to know when your trash is picked up, the status quo of the community, and appropriate telephone numbers for whatever services (septic pumps, fire department if you live somewhere where your burn trash, etc...).
Every family with small children know the name of their pediatrician, the location of the office, and the phone number of the office.
True Story:
2 guys unloading goods off a truck at a restaurant where I worked. 1 guy holds the unloading ramp waving to the driver to back up. The driver guns the gas, the truck is in reverse, the ramp hits the back door and the guy holding the ramp gets a finger cut off.
The kids who witness this freak out, I keep my cool. I pickup his finger (which was grey in color and kind of flat) and put it in ice, call 911 and monitor the time.
There is a fire house less than 2 miles away from us so I figure that it shouldn't take that long.
After 15 minutes, I call again.
27 minutes after the first call, they arrive.
A police dispatcher will tell you that calling their desk will result in a faster response time anyway.
No, the ILECs are just using FUD (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:120 days.... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Most already have it... (Score:3, Interesting)
I worked for a while at a CLEC actually setting up our 911 interconnection with the ILEC here and the 911 call centers had routable numbers.
those days are gone (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know how widespread this problem is, but the "direct calling" idea is no longer an option in some locations. Sad, really.
Re:How about reading the article? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, it is really useful to tell a recording where you are!
Why not? When I call 411 on my cell phone, the automated system asks for City, State. Why can't 911 on VoIP do the same thing if the IP being used isn't registered? VoIP will need to account for both registered and unregistered IPs. If the IP is registered, then route the call to the mapped 911 call center. If the IP is not registered, the automated system can ask for City, State the same as 411 does and route appropriately.
Best take on this from Jeff Pulver... (Score:3, Interesting)
My final thought on today's events: Amidst all the emotionally heart-wrenching anecdotes about failed Vonage 911 calls, no one ever mentioned the failures of traditional carrier emergency response services. I'm forced to wonder what would have happened if the FCC had paraded the spouses and parents of those who died when 911 failed on traditional wireline and wireless networks? I guess that wouldn't be acceptable - that might scare consumers of traditional telecom services and antagonize the traditional communications power structure. Let's bully the new weak kids in town but not draw attention to current emergency response failures by those that are capable of fighting back.
Couldn't agree more. This order is just the stepping stone to full regulation of VOIP inlcuding lawful intercept (CALEA) in order to kill it on behalf of the BOCs.Re:120 days.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why is this being regulated? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't deny that if it were purely a cost factor, it should be implemented. In fact, my old POTS provider itemized out the E911 fee at $1 per month. I would gladly pay that difference if I could get the service on my VoIP line. It doesn't only benefit me, but it would be an additional saftey net for my neighbors and visitors as well. Unfortunately it is not a cost factor at all.
As others have pointed out in other threads in this story, the biggest hurdle is technological. The E911 system works as well as it does because when a call comes in the copper pair used to carry that call is tied to a specific physical location. That location is then displayed on the screen of the call-taker, so they can have emergency crews on the way before they even find out the full emergency.
With my VoIP line, there is technically no physical location to tie my call to. I can be making the call from my ATA here in the house. Or I can be using a softphone on my PC at work. I can be using a WiFi phone at a McDonalds a thousand miles away from my house. Since geographic tracing of IP addresses is all but reliable (I generally use a VPN when I am not at home, and calls still get routed out my home IP) there is no way to give accurate data to the E911 dispatch center.
What I have done on my phone is configured it so that when (if) 911 is dialed, the call is routed to my local sheriff's office dispatch center. Everybody in my household and who visits often knows that they will have to give the address to the call taker if they have an emergency. When I am traveling away from my home, I know not to dial 911 on my phone.
As I said before, the problem is that Jane Soapwatcher doesn't take the time to read through the documentation provided prior to signing up for the service. They read the advertisements that say they can take their ATA with them when they travel and can plug in their phone in a hotel room and get their calls. They try to dial 911 and you know the rest of the story.
Personally I think the providers should actively NOT support 911 because of the limitations, not implement pseudo support. When the user dials they should get a greeting to the effect of "This phone line does not support 911 services. Please use another phone or press 1 now to be connected to directory services to search for the local sheriff's office number." That way when Jane Soapwatcher tries to call, she won't waste time trying to dial 3 times not understanding why the call won't go through as the original person in TFA did.
To sum it up, I have valid reasons for saying the providers should not be forced into something the technology doesn't support. And by the way, if you are hurt and ask me for help, I will do whatever is in my power to assist. I'm not "just an egotistical asshole," I sometimes like to play Devil's Advocate as well.
Jeremy