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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?
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
Yeah they can. Both from tower information/ triangulation and GPS.
The previous has been a secret message to my comrades.
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 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.
They can't always speak, or don't always know where they are. When I was in EMT training we got to hear quite a few 911 calls and go through the case. More than once the person started to call for help (generally due to herat attack or the like) and couldn't get as far as their name before they collapsed with the phone off the hook. Fortunately, 911 had the guys address right on the screen and had already rolled service and advised they may have to use forced entry. And if a little kid calls they may not know or be able to relay their current physical location. Or they may know but due to the trauma of mommy laying on the floor unconscious not be able to relay that info to the nice dispatcher on the other side.
Time is the quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working. -Anon
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.