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FCC to Push VoIP 911 Requirements
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."
Traceroute? :p
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
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.
Well, what about when you use your VoIP through a VPN that is piggy backing off the business next door's wireless?
Now I have to wonder, where in the world are the 911 prank callers? Since we have a 911-enabled VOIP network with no trace feature, how are we to stop all the pranksters who like to call 911 with fake calls? AND, lets not forget the legitimate calls being ignored or suffering from the DDoS they're encountering. Are the people who are really being raped, murdered or worse, going to get through to the 911 ops?
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Yeah they can. Both from tower information/ triangulation and GPS.
The previous has been a secret message to my comrades.
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.
Remember the credit card ad that said, "Don't leave home without it"?
Well, the VoIP people can simply resuse that, ammended to "Don't leave home."
KFG
It will be a requirement soon (if not already) for all cell phones to be GPS-enabled for emergency purposes. The legislation was passed a long time ago. I just can't remember the final "all new phones must comply" date.
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This looks like a decision passed to kowtow to the region bells who think they're unfairly harassed by providing 911 services.
With wifi, ssh tunnels and unspecified internal deployment of handsets in a corporation it's ridiculous to expect vonage et al to provide 911 services comparable to the regional bell.
I fully expect 911 calls to end up getting into a frenzy for an incident that is eventually located in bombay.
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.
I just got Vonage, and it has pseudo 911. You activate it by entering your address.
p hp?article=394
It's not real 911 because it connects to an intermediary service that then connects you to the real 911.
http://www.vonage.com/help_knowledgeBase_article.
Example:
"To enable 911 service, click YES.
Please enter your location below"
Just don't make the default "Off."
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Since the inception of VoIP, I have not had a problem with subscribers not being able to access the 911 emergency system. They are still able to call directly to their police or fire department. I was surprised to find, however, that the typical VoIP user doesn't understand that the phone (which looks like any other phone) is fundamentally different in the way it handles information and can't reach 911. This can lead (in my mind at least) to a lot of confused subscribers at a time of crisis
Regardless, the in the end, the call quality is low enough that the dispatcher probably won't understand what you are trying to say once 911 access is engineered.
--
Ask and your request will be answered. People who call 911, usually can speak and usually can tell where they are. That should take care of 99.9% of the problem.
Oh well, what the hell...
I would think an easy solution would be to REQUIRE that a person signing up for VOIP service provide their address for 911 service before even turning on their access to the network. This was prompted because of problems with people who were too ignorant or lazy to submit this information even when prompted several times to by the provider. (Specifically- Vonage.) If the information was required prior to service activation- it wouldn't be a problem.
It will still be an issue for people who travel with their VOIP boxes, and there probably isn't a solution without going to GPS and making the whole thing more expensive than a regular POTS line.
Once again- we are looking to legislate (or at least regulate) personal responsibility.
And there we have it, VoIP vaporizes with a small puff of white smoke. The fact of the matter is that it is not possible to provide a reliable 911 service with the present VoIP implementations.
Wire line services can provide 911 location service because the phones are physically wired to a specific location. A number cannot move without the phone company knowing exactly where it has moved to. This is not possible with the present incarnation of VoIP. In fact, the only way that reliable 911 location service will ever be possible is if every VoIP device has a GPS receiver in it and transmits the location information when the VoIP terminal registers with the PBX. Any other way WILL fail.
This will require an all new VoIP implementation/protocol, as well as new VoIP equipment to make it work. Now, I just have to figure out how to make an ATA with GPS receiver embedded in it receive the GPS signal while under a desk indoors.
If VoIP is regulated, the baby Bells will won it. Do you feel pown3d?
Yes, and if the govt. et al require 911 service of VOIP providers, then get ready for static IP's and IP V6 requirements, and all sorts of nonsensical BS about the Internet and regulations.
Trust me, once they get even one regulation passed regarding the use or configuration of the Internet, it WILL snowball...
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There are a few ways to do this;
1) Use the callerid # to lookup the address in a database which is *required* to be accurate. By law. This would be a step big companies take care of for you, transparently, while the smaller of us who buy our numbers from places like voicepulse would fill out a form when we purchase a number
2) e911. Make it universal.
I like option 1 myself, but I could see logistical problems, not to mention abuse problems, were it not handled correctly.
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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.
As I see it, one of the problems with this is simply determining where "phone" services begin and end. For example, while Vonage or Lingo may be a real 'phone replacement' and for 99.9% of users should be able to do 911 service, how about Skype? If you only use Skypeout and you only use it via a headset on a laptop, is that VoIP? It certainly *is* "Voice over IP", but does that make it a phone service that should need 911 service?
If they start classifying things like Skype as a voice telecommunications service and requiring 911 calls to function, then what's next? 911 requirements for Teamspeak?
Maybe a VoIP "phone" is one which can place a call which eventually gets circuit switched on one end, even if 99% of the transit is packet switched.
It seems to me that what really needs to happen is a revamping of the 911 system to deal with the portability of numbers. You want 911? Fine, go somewhere and configure your address any time you move the phone around. When you dial 911, it transmits your entered address. Possibly the hardware/software acting as your phone also monitors the MAC address of its default gateway after you change the address associated; if the MAC address changes but the address has not, a warning goes out to emergency services that notes that there is reason to believe the address may not be completely reliable (and thus, hopefully an emergency operator can confirm it with you when you call).
Lots of little things rely on the phone network. My house alarm, for example, will freak out completely if I cut my phone service entirely, because it uses the phone line to keep in touch with the alarm monitoring service.
One way this could be done is if all of the 911 services also have a full (area)-xxx-xxxx phone number. You would then alias that to "911" in your VOIP hardware.
Cable companies and DSL providers of VoIP services offer 911 location service. They can do this because they have a fixed cable going to a fixed installation. In other words, their wire runs from your house to their office so they know exactly where you are. But, with services like Vonage that don't actually own the cable or provide the last mile service, this is not an option. Vonage and the like have no way of reliably determining the VoIP caller's exact location.
I am quite sure that cable, DSL and regular phone companies will push very hard to require VoIP to support 911 location services because it will give them back the control over the consumer that is presently slipping away with VoIP.
The comparisons with cellphones (and there lack of 911 location information) needs to take a few point into consideration:
1. Calls from cellphones to 911 typically go the State Police dispatcher who will then have to contact the local dispatcher to actually send someone (other then the state police) to the caller. This takes extra time and puts one more person in the game of 'telephone' that is played from 911 requester to 911 provider.
2. Adding VOIP to the State police dispatcher will make them even more overwhelmed when the majority of VOIP calls are going to be made from a fixed location and as such should be routed to a local dispatcher.
3. Many times when someone calls 911 they give a poor, incomplete or inaccurate assessment of what the problem is (and where they are), ask any first responder how many calls are completely different from what they get dispatched as (As a volunteer ems provider, I experience this all time).
This gps talk is cute, but how about we simply add an address that needs to be associated with the VOIP account when its opened but can be disabled by a user if they want, so the small minority of VOIP users that are moving it around can 'opt-out' of it while grandma has it in place for here vonage account her grandson set up for her at her home.
Let's not get all crazy and impractical with GPS locators etc, trying to cover every wierd case. I'm willing to bet the portability feature of VOIP isn't used very often. In truly mobile settings I think most people use mobile phones.
The fact is, VoIP is going to blow the phone paradigm away in about 30 years. Right now, home networks are getting VoIP boxes and software, and users are providing addresses for these home networks because those boxes are stationary. But what about people who are smart enough to take their VoIP box with them? What about the posibility of VoIP over wireless in 30 years?
The copper wire switched networks have specific addresses they can link to nodes because the network was proprietary and controlled. Now that the network (the internet) is open, it doesn't yet have this feature that can tie an IP address, particularly a roaming IP address, to a location.
The only thing I can think of right now are GPS locators on all phones which have a frequency only the 911 operators can access... but that could be abused way too easily.
For now, asking the VoIPs to provide 911 service like vonage does is enough for the time being, but soon they'll have to solve this problem for VoIP roamers, and that will require a "think-outside-the-box" solution. As VoIP evolves, 911 will have to be completely redesigned.
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It can be very hard when you are disoriented, in pain, cannot speak, cannot breathe, or when there is smoke and fire and your kids are trapped, and the simplest of tasks becomes damn near impossible.
911 works because it is simple and pervasive, a four year old can understand 911, guide dogs and other service animals have been trained to use 911 call buttons.
Just so everyone knows, 911 can work on VoIP. My provider, Speakeasy, requires in their terms of service that the adapter be used at the location to which it is sent, the address on the agreement, so that 911 services can work. One of the first things I did was to test it - I called the cops first and they said it was OK; I called 911 and the same guy answered and read back my name and address from the screen.
IPv6 would allow you to deduce the geographical location, as the IP address is a function of the logical location, which can then be used to infer the most probable geographical location. However, IPv4 has nothing that allows you to infer location by address. This may actually be the driving force for IPv6, given that none of the other reasons (privacy, addressability, etc) have ever worked with people.
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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.
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If you make it look the same then how will they know the difference? If a neighbour picks up the phone to dial how will they know?
People using technology should not have to be burdened with how it works, and most people don't know how their stuff works (do you know how lag and advance work in your car's ignition?). Most people see their PC + Google + internet + the rest of the web as "the computer" and don't know what lives where. That's why you get calls like: "If I sell my monitor will people be able to read my email?"
Same goes for a phone. If it looks like a phone, and for 99% of use behaves like a phone, then in an emergency (== time when people are not thinking), it should also act like a phone.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Personally I like to make my self as anonymous as possible... I spoof my MAC (like I have now 00-00-00-00-00-01), spoof my IP or use an open access point 99% of the time. ( the connection I'm using now isn't even mine. (Yes I'm paranoid) So if I'm using all of these things (in paticular an open access point not to mention that my p3 cpu has the id disabled). Should I have to woory about a GPS keyfob? NO! Would I consider buying a computer with GPS integrated? What do you think? Not bloody likely.
Let's not get all crazy and impractical with GPS locators etc, trying to cover every wierd case. I'm willing to bet the portability feature of VOIP isn't used very often. In truly mobile settings I think most people use mobile phones.
.. so when you dial 911, your device can relay its position (whether that be from a GPS, manually entered as a home address, or just "mobile" or "not available") across the media path and have it end up at the 911 call center. Of course, the PSTN certainly isn't ready for this. On analog lines, it won't work at all. On digital (ISDN PRI/BRI) lines, there may be the possibility to send this, and I don't know a lot about that stuff, but I'd imagine there's no provisions for extra data like that, and it would require every access switch to get upgraded.
Exactly. It just REALLY complicates things. Cell phones still don't all have GPS locators, and I'd say cell phones are far more common than VoIP users.
It also pushes the issue of how far can you really take this? We use a VoIP-based PBX in the office, and I can access it from home (or anywhere else with an internet connection). If I were to call 911, the call would go out over our analog lines that are physically connected at the office (there's a rule that prevents them from being placed on outbound VoIP trunks), even though I'm at home, relaying the wrong 911 location.
A service I'd love to see, and I'm sure someone will come out with eventually, is the ability to connect a cellphone directly to VoIP. So for example, our cells would basically become office extensions (except using the cell phone coverage area), and when someone dials a number it would be the same as someone called from a phone in the office -- this would also relay the wrong 911 info.
What's the solution to this? Maybe add a header/field into the VoIP protocols (SIP, H.323, IAX2) that can relay location information from the endpoint
Speak before you think
If they maintained a list of what area each IP range is in it wouldn't be too hard. They would simply have the computer look it up and direct your call to the right spot. The only problem is that they might be going through an international proxy in which case it would be harder to detect.
In this case couldn't they make a slight modification to the standard to have something that sends the IP of the person calling when the conversation starts. I wouldn't think that it would be that hard to make it backwards compatable so that old software still works but have all new software with the new standard.
Anther thing that could be done is to have localised numbers to call for various countries.
For VOIP to provide any 911 service, there has to be recognition that there are two principle forms of VOIP. While there is no meaningful technology distinction between the two, there are substantial implementation distinctions for 911 purposes.
The easy category which should be the target of FCC and other requirements is the traditional fixed-location telephone replacement. This service is a device (hardware or software) which is not generally mobile, and, which operates from a fixed location like a traditional land-line phone. Registration of the location and appropriate 911 connectivity for these devices should be a simple matter and isn't an unreasonable requirement for VOIP service providers.
The other category is location-independent VOIP. This could be an 802.11 based SIP cordless handset, a laptop running a soft phone, or any number of other such VOIP devices which can and often do change location on a regular device. These devices present multiple nearly insurmountable challenges for providing 911 service over VOIP, and, should not be required to do so until a practical alternative to them can be determined.
It should be up to the consumer to determine which category their particular VOIP account will fall under, but, providers should be required to make full disclosure of the tradeoffs prior to the consumer making such a decision.
To highlight the challenges presented, consider the following:
- Without any location data, it is virtually impossible to correctly route the call to an appropriate 911 provider. Afterall, my billing address may be in San Jose, my VOIP service may be based in Virginia, with a Virginia telephone number, and, I could be placing calls from that service while sitting at a Cafe in South Africa. What good is the dispatch center in San Jose or Virginia going to do me? Instead, the VOIP provider should route me to a recording that informs me I need to obtain local assistance and reminding me that 911 isn't available from this phone.
- It is hard (so far, impossible) to reliably obtain location data from such devices.
- There is no provision in the VOIP protocol for a standard way in which to provide location data even if it were available.
- GPS does not work indoors.
- Not all countries actually have 911 service. What does a VOIP provider based in Virginia do when they know their customer is trying to call 911 from South Africa?
- Any method of reliably generating location data has much worse privacy implications
I am curious as to how the Canadian requirements address these issues. If anyone knows, an email to owen at delong dot com would be appreciated.This topic has been discussed at great lengths on the Vonage Voip Forum for weeks: http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic3843.html