2005 is coming to a close and we just passed a FCC imposed deadline on Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) carriers. Four moths ago, the FCC mandated that VoIP carriers provide reliable 911 emergency service to all their subscribers by a deadline that was set for this past Monday. The deadline came and went with many of the providers far from complete compliance. Vonage, the largest VoIP provider in the country with over one million subscribers, only provides 26 percent of its customer base with 911 service. The FCC stood firm in refusing to grant an extension to Vonage and other companies racing to meet the government deadline, and the courts refused to stay the FCC’s order. Even the urging of Congress for more time fell on deaf ears. The FCC now is set to bar companies not in full compliance from signing up new customers in the areas that do not have 911 access. The FCC is requiring VoIP companies to provide “enhanced 911” or “E-911” service to their customers. In a traditional switched telephone network, the phone company associates each telephone number with a particular physical address. When a person dials 911 on a switched phone, the company routes the call to the closest emergency dispatch service and transmits to the dispatch the caller’s phone number and address. This facilitates quickly sending emergency response workers to the caller’s address and lets the dispatch call the person back if they are accidentally disconnected. In the VoIP world, this is impossible since users can use their VoIP phone number from any location as long as they have access to an Internet connection.
While portability is one of the beauties of the technology, it has provided a challenge to emergency service providers because when the caller dials 911, the company does not know the physical location of the caller and, therefore, cannot transmit the caller’s location or route the call to the nearest emergency service dispatcher. The FCC thinks it has solved the problem by mandating that companies require their customers to provide a physical location when they sign up for a phone service and then transmit that location along with the phone number to the local 911 dispatch.
While this may sound like a good solution, it relies on individuals to remember to update their address when they change locations. AT&T has come up with one solution. When a VoIP user powers down, the service is suspended temporarily. When the user tries to connect again, the service will prompt the user to either verify that they haven’t moved physical locations or if they have moved, provide the new address. This isn’t foolproof, as AT&T has no way of verifying the address or whether the user is actually at that location. Yet, this seems like a great solution for two reasons: it allows accurate routing and the instantaneous transmission of a 911 caller’s location to the emergency dispatch, and it also protects the privacy of users by avoiding having to find a technical solution that would track a user’s location by IP address.
Although it’s not the most elegant solution, it could work. While some might argue that this solution still relies on individuals having to voluntarily provide their physical location, (which could impede the efficiency of emergency service delivery systems), this approach isn’t so bad. Those who want can provide their information and people who are concerned about privacy could just rely on the old-fashioned system of providing the dispatcher with the address at the time they call. This seems like a fix that could work for everyone.