VoIP Providers Worry as FCC Clams Up

phoneboy writes "By the end of next week, Voice over IP providers must advise all subscribers of any 911 service limitations and get "affirmative acknowledgment" that customers understand that VoIP 911 service is not the same as landline 911 by July 29. What happens if the customers don't affirm? The FCC isn't saying."

Comments

Concessions...

[Capt James McCarthy]

I have to say that at the price for my Speakeasy VOIP and quality/features I receive from them, I wouldn't care if they told me that 911 doesn't work at all. I hope POTS isn't having 911 be their main selling point. There were days when you wrote emergency numbers by your phone, it's not that tough.

Just do a "Registration Required" for every call

[Mortimer82]

I have to admit this is annoying, but it is the sort of annoying that may be necessary to potentially save lives of those "i'll do it later" but never actually do kind of people.

The companies just need to make it that if you haven't yet set up your E911, whenever you try making a call, before the call connects, it gives a voice prompt telling you that E911 is not yet set up, and without it you may have difficulty making emergency calls. After the voice message, your call connects normally.

Very much like a software approach to security updates and registrations, and while annoying, if following the instructions is the only way to get rid of the annoyance, you may be suprised at how many people suddenly take the effort.

At least people can't accuse the VOIP companies of not warning them.

Re:Dialing 911 with VoIP?

[JaredOfEuropa]

If I were really in an emergency, I would probably use whatever communication method is closest, even if it were a tin can with a string hanging out the end of it.

That's why I like GSM, and why kept my old GSM phone... On all GSM phones (well, at least in Europe, not sure about the rest of the world), you can dial the emergency number 112, without a subscription or even without a simcard inserted into the phone. Try it... even if a phone is locked by a PIN code, you should be able to enter a PIN of 112 and hit the dial button to call out. As long as the battery is juiced up, you can dial 112.

Re:Dialing 911 with VoIP?

[chrisgeleven]

In the U.S., all cell phones (even ones without plans attached to them) must be able to dial 911.

In theory, someone can take an old cell phone, throw it in the glove compartment of their car, never have to pay a cent, and if they are in an area with coverage they can dial 911 from it if they get in an accident.

Re:I'll tell you what happens..

[kesuki]

It's more than just 'normal caller id' ever called a pizza place? if you've enver ordered from them, they ask you your address... they have caller id on the computers they use to take the orders..

911 operation centers have a customer address database, provided to them by the telcos, governed by FCC rules. and 911 center calls are treated differently than normal calls too, they get the highest routing priority (meaning if you've been chatting on a circuit for hours on end*, and the circuits are 'loaded' and someone tries to call 911, your call will get dropped) In addition, if you've opted to have your caller id blocked completely (not even a number shows up) your number will Still Show up for 911 operations.

This is all because of FCC regs. And yeah, DSL uses a circuit too, but telcos went whole hog increasing the number of circuits available because of dialup, and the fact that many people continue to use dialup.. and modern systems no longer require the dialup isp to maintin a seperate circuit for each and every dialup user, because they have a 'digitial' connection... Also DSL can optionally be a 'dedicated' circuit meaning every other non dedicated circuit would have to be occupied by a 911 call for it to be dropped. something that can happen, in a disaster.. but not normally.

*= this happened a lot when i used dialup, every 2-3 days or so, circuits would get loaded for whatever reason, and my call would get dropped because it became lowest priority, if circuits cleared i would reconnect, but sometimes it took 5 or more minutes for enough circuits to clear...

Re:What happens if the customers don't affirm?

[Anonymous Coward]

You might want to check out http://www.wigiwigi.com/ . Have just entered beta it seems and is under very active development.

Why don't I understand the big deal?

[CrackedButter]

I'm in the UK and this talk of enabling 911 services on a device seems a little stupid, why don't the phone companies do it for you right away? Why does the customer have to do it? Looking in this thread people mention they have to give an address? Whats the deal with that, they would need an address to get to you in an emergency. Why is this a big deal that every week on slashdot their is a discussion about it? I'm just a non american sitting here scratching my head with confusion and wondering what the hell you americans are playing at! Not trolling, I really want to know.

Re:Why don't I understand the big deal?

[TheoMurpse]

The reason is twofold: idealogical and logical.

From an idealogical perspective, the government regulationg internet packets (because that's all VoIP is) is chilling. What's next? Skype? AIM and MSN voice chat? Do those have to call 911 next? You can use Skype to connect to POTS landlines as well. Should Skype be outlawed in the US because it's not subject to the 911 requirement the other companies are using. What about when people choose Skype because it's not regulated, effectively being the FCC causing business to move overseas (Skype is a Luxembourgian company, IIRC).

From a logistical POV, VoIP is portable, so to some people it makes no sense to require E911 registration when the registration information is going to be wrong some of the time.

Of course, I'm still out to lunch on how I feel -- on one hand, I think the FCC regulating IP is chilling, because what program is next? On the other hand, I understand the side that things it's something that should be required of all communications media that can be confused with POTS phones which have 911 by default in most (all?) of the country.

What we need

[Cytlid]

Is a new 911 system. Duh. Think about it ... the traditional phone monopolies have a hold of the 911 system by the cahones, and they like it that way. And they cannot be too happy about voip, especially stealing their business.

I work for a local company that is both a telephone and data company (I work for the data side). We have a small test voip network. Basically, we threw together all the equipment needed to do voip. And I ported my home number over to it. Can I dial 911? Got me ... so I made sure everyone in the family has cell phones and they know to use them to call 911.

If I remember correctly, 911 is a service we have to subscribe to, which is why customers are footed the bill, and it's a requirement. Why not just change the 911 system? Have someone create an open standard that anyone can link into without a problem. Hell make it based on IP and redundant and better than the current 911 system (not that I know how that works).

Lets turn this from the FCC ruling something that could be the ruling RBOCs' wet dream into making an exsisting system something better. I might just start by writing the FCC myself...

Re:I'll tell you what happens..

[Ex Machina]

They usually have either an actual GPS chip and/or some stuff to assist in location triangulation from cell towers. This is usually mentioned as "enhanced 911".

Re:I'll tell you what happens..

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

Even my cheap cell phone has GPS in it. I can't go geocaching with it, but it's a basic feature for them to be able to locate me in an emergency. In fact, I recommend everybody who is concerned about their 911 coverage from VoIP service to just buy a cheap pay as you go phone. IIRC, you can still make 911 calls on a cell phone without having an active service plan. A cheap VirginMobile K7 would do the trick. Or any GPS capable phone from eBay.

Re:America==Monopoly capitalism/golden rule/lotter

[Midnight Thunder]

I don't think the telcos chose to have 911, rather the FCC forced them to support it. They also forced the cell phone companies. Why should it be any different for VoIP?

When providing services of a certain type there will be requirements that you need to adhere to.

Re:I would get voip but

[ryanov]

Is that really true? I don't think so. When my service has been disconnected in the past, it was DISCONNECTED -- ie. old phone, non-cordless, blow into it: nothing. Maybe phones without a dialtone might dial 911, but I'm not sure even about that.

This is complete BS

[acoustix]

The FCC gave cell phone providers over 10 years to figure out 911 services. Now they want VoIP companies to do the same thing in 10 months? You would think that the FCC, of all government agencies, would understand the problems that VoIP has to overcome.

-Nick

voice-interrupt for affirmative acknowledgement

[davidwr]

The next time a VoIP customer tries to call a non-VoIP number, have the VoIP provider intercept the call with an annoying message saying "The FCC wants you to know that VoIP 911 services are not the same as land line 911 and may not work in an emergency. The FCC requires that we tell you and that you acknowledge that we have told you. To repeat this announcement, press 1, to acknowledge that you heard it and continue your call, press 2."

This meets the "affirmative acknowledgement" requirement.