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FCC to Push VoIP 911 Requirements

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the this-can-only-work-badly dept.

maotx writes "Originaly declared a regulation free area, VoIP is going under a new look. With complaints against it, the FCC has decided to move forward with its original plan to require VoIP providers to provide 911 support. This brings up interesting questions on how they're going to know where in the world your VoIP enabled laptop is when you call 911."

7 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. GPS by Leroy+Brown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With the universal adoption of GPS, it wouldn't be hard to put a GPS receiver on a USB key-fob and relay the information in some standardized fashion.

    It's being bundled into cell phones these days for the same purpose.

    Just don't bundle it into the computer itself, or the conspiracy theorists may become the conspiracy realists. ;)

    1. Re:GPS by Leroy+Brown · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not true. Text from my Sanyo telephone:
      "Turning location on will allow the network to detect your position, making some Sprint applications easier to use. Turning location off will hide your location from everyone except 911. Ever if location is turned on in this handset, no service may use your location without your express permission."

      and an interesting tidbit I found on google (url http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/0053_4.h tml)
      " Enhanced-911: The FCC will soon require that all new cellular phones be equipped with more accurate location determination technology to improve responses to emergency 911 calls. Removing SA will boost the accuracy of GPS to such a degree that it could become the method of choice for implementing the 911 requirement. A GPS-based solution might be simpler and more economical than alternative techniques such as radio tower triangulation, leading to lower consumer costs."

      As far as time synchronization, I'm ignorant to modern standards, but I do recall a company that sold NTP servers that synchronized with cellular towers using CDMA vs. GPS, which indicates that cell phones do this as well. It's quite possible that the GPS enabled ones use GPS instead.

  2. Yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, what about when you use your VoIP through a VPN that is piggy backing off the business next door's wireless?

  3. For 99% of the time... by DrEldarion · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This brings up interesting questions on how they're going to know where in the world your VoIP enabled laptop is when you call 911.

    Your billing information should be able to be used for that purpose. Just redirect to the 911 service local to the billing address. Granted, it won't be too helpful for people who move around a lot, but it should be sufficient 99% of the time.

  4. No location requirment by plilja · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If they follow the original proposal, there will not be a location requirement for 911, just a requirement for 911 connectivity. That is, if you dial 911 on a VoIP phone you will get a 911 operator...but you will still need to tell that operator your location. Some VoIP vendors may impliment a primary residence that gets displayed to 911 operators, but this would be optional. Currently if you dial 911 on a VoIP phone, you will only get a 911 operator if your VoIP vendor has implimented the feature voluntarily.

  5. VoIP e911 works for me by chrispix · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have Verizon Fios internet service, along with Sunrocket VoIP service. I was quite interested in finding out if 911 even connected me to the right place, as several people said it did not work w/ VoIP providers. So I called the non-emergency number in Rowlett, Tx. They answered my call, and I let them know I was going to test my 911 service as I had a new phone provider. I hung up, dialed 911. It took maybe 3-4 seconds to get a ring tone, and the emergency operator in Rowlett, picked up the phone, and asked what my emergency was. I told her that I just called the non-emergency number, and was testing 911. She then informed me my name, and my address came thru with the call. So looks like I don't have anything to worry about. :) Also make sure if you are testing your 911, you call the non-emergency number first, although you never know where you might wind up.

  6. Stupid misunderstanding of the new world by btempleton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As I understand it, they want to put both E911 and universal access surcharges on VoIP phones. The big telcos want this because they have to pay them and they are a barrier to entry for small companies.

    But what do you regulate? SIP phones? There is a SIP phone in every copy of Windows XP, and freely available ones for all OSs. They can all register with proxies and make VoIP calls. They have to pay to go out to the PSTN right now, though.

    Instead, they are putting the regs if the service gives you a phone number for incoming calls. Ie. it's backwards. If you can _receive_ calls (without necessarily the ability to make them) from the PSTN, then you have to be able to make an outgoing call to 911.

    But anything can be a phone now. It can look like an old phone or it can be a piece of software. Anything can be set up to receive calls, or make them, or both. Or not talk to the PSTN at all. Or talk to it in limited ways (for example there are dial-in numbers that let you call from the PSTN and then enter a Free World Dialup number, making every FWD phone able to receive a call from the PSTN.)

    This is a dangerous rathole. Accept that voice != emergency service path and find a better way.

    --
    Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation