Vonage 911 Deadline Passed

An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo is reporting that the FCC may block any new customers wishing to sign up with Vonage. The internet phone service company has passed the Monday deadline that was given to them to provide reliable 911 service. From the article: "The company -- which has more than 1 million subscribers -- said it was capable of transmitting a call back number and location for 100 percent of its subscribers, but that it still was waiting for cooperation from competitors that control the 911 network."

Comments

Unfair

[acoustix]

Why is it that VoIP companies where only given 10 months to solve the 911 problem and cell phone companies had 10+ years before they had reliable 911 service?

-Nick

Re:Fines

[Shakrai]

The whole requirement is a deliberate ploy by the POTS services (Qwest/SBC/Verizon) to eliminate the competition from Vonage and other VOIP providers. So, whether they are being uncooperative or not is moot. Do you think you should be forced to pay more (to a company, not the government) to force you to have 911 service on a line that you may not need it for?

Do you think that they should be allowed to sell this product without making a full disclosure of the pros and cons? Because before the FCC stepped into this mess that's exactly what they were doing.

Hell, even if you gave the consumers the option of opting out of E-911 service at least they would be making an informed choice. You can't make such a choice if you don't have all the facts -- and I don't really see Vonage or Time Warner listing all of the disadvantages of their product in any of their promotional literature.