VoIP and E-911: The FCC steps in

Questions and answers about E-911 from Jim Cavanagh

VoIP, unified messaging, products and services

Continuing our conversation from the last newsletter, we’re featuring some comments from our colleague, Jim Cavanagh, one of the leading experts on the issue of E-911.

In this newsletter, Jim addresses some of the recent FCC actions in this regard. He told us:

"My wife stared in disbelief as I explained the details. She was receiving a constant stream of e-mail, allegedly from our VoIP provider, Vonage, with the subject line ‘Important Vonage 911 Dialing - Action Required’ and claiming if we didn’t ‘click here’ our phone service would be terminated.

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Continuing our conversation from the last newsletter, we’re featuring some comments from our colleague, Jim Cavanagh, one of the leading experts on the issue of E-911.

In this newsletter, Jim addresses some of the recent FCC actions in this regard. He told us:

"My wife stared in disbelief as I explained the details. She was receiving a constant stream of e-mail, allegedly from our VoIP provider, Vonage, with the subject line ‘Important Vonage 911 Dialing - Action Required’ and claiming if we didn’t ‘click here’ our phone service would be terminated.

'Why do we have to “click here" ?'

To verify that we understand the 911 dialing we have with Vonage is different than with BellSouth.

‘How different?’

BellSouth’s phones are powered from BellSouth’s central office: no power, they still work. Vonage’s system is powered from our home: no power, no phone service, including 911. Also, when dialing 911 via Vonage our local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) doesn’t know our callback phone number or location, so we have to tell them and, if we carry our telephone adapter with us to Salt Lake City and dial 911, the emergency call still goes to the Marietta, Ga., PSAP.

‘Didn’t we do this when we signed up?’

Yes, but Vonage is being required to re-notify all customers and to get a positive acknowledgement that we understand these issues and will explain them to anyone using our phone, such as babysitters and visiting relatives.

‘And who is requiring this?’

The Federal Communications Commission. I explained that the FCC was moved to action by two instances, one in Florida and one in Texas, where people almost died because of the differences between the traditional and VoIP ways of getting 911 service.

‘Will it always be this way, where our new system does less and is more difficult to use than the older system?’

No, I explained, there are solutions being worked on right now by the major players in the VoIP industry, but there would be some interim period where we would have to put up with a lower level of service.

It might have been only then that she realized why she still sees a BellSouth bill in our mail each month: the traditional, hard-wired telephone safety net. It won’t be there forever, probably, but it will be until our new services at least match our plain ol’ telephone service in reliability, quality and ease of use. And if we don’t ‘click here’? Our outbound VoIP phone service will be discontinued until we do."

***

We’ll follow up Jim’s remarks with a comment that we’ve noticed that the E-911 issue now at least has our collective attention. In fact, in the ads in Steve’s hometown for Time Warner’s phone service, full E-911 capability is included in print ads as a “feature.”

In the next newsletter, we’ll feature some comments from Larry from his recent visit to VoiceCon, and we’ll have some more comments from Jim in subsequent newsletters. In the meantime, you can reach Jim by clicking here.

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.