VOIP Information

VoIP and 911 Warning


Be leery of your VoIP phone system in case of emergencies. 911 services may not be available to you or will be limited. You should put local emergency numbers by or on your phone in case you have a problem until the providers get this sorted out this fall. The FCC has been after VoIP providers to fix this problem and just recently extended the deadline. But for you and me, that means we have to be careful in emergencies or be left stranded trying to dial 911.

Providers of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone service have been told by the FCC to warn customers of potential problems of using 911 as an emergency number. The FCC told providers they should obtain acknowledgements from their subscribers and if they didn't, then they should turn off their service.

The VON coalition, a group of VoIP providers which include AT&T and MCI, were concerned of what would happen to their customers if they were cut off. Some portion of the subscribers typically won't respond to a request. Is it in the public's best interest to disconnect these people?

There are about 1.7 million VoIP subscribers nationwide and this cut off from the FCC could have potentially disrupted service for 100,000 people. The FCC issued this decree in May after a woman was unable to get 911 help to save her dying daughter.

The FCC ordered all the providers to have full 911 service by November 28th.

Here's the quote from the FCC:

Specifically, the Bureau announces that it will continue to refrain, for an additional 30 days -- until September 28, 2005 -- from enforcing the requirement that VoIP providers obtain affirmative acknowledgements from 100% of their subscribers that they have read and understood an advisory concerning the limitations of their E911 service against those providers that meet the reporting requirements established below.

In addition to satisfying these reporting requirements, to be eligible for this extension, providers also must have filed a report on or before August 10, 2005 in accordance with the Bureau's July 26, 2005 Public Notice. The Bureau will evaluate the sufficiency of the updated reports filed by interconnected VoIP providers and take subsequent action as necessary.

If you don't get anything from this article but this: Post all your local emergency phone numbers by your phone. Do it today. Emergencies aren't scheduled.

Stuart Simpson
http://www.voip-telephony-review.com


MORE RESOURCES:

The Future of VoIP: Where Can it Take You?
CNNMoney.com - 21 hours ago
Several years ago, VoIP was one of the hottest and most hyped technologies in the communications industry. Today, with approximately 30 percent(2) of all ...
Verizon Business exports key VoIP services around the globe FierceVoIP
Verizon Business to Drive Global IP Network for Daimler AG MarketWatch
all 55 news articles


The CounterPath Softphone Experience Now Integrated with Microsoft ...
MarketWatch - 15 hours ago
a leading provider of innovative desktop and mobile VoIP software products and solutions, today announced the launch of Bria for Microsoft Outlook(R). ...
Natural Convergence and CounterPath deliver new USB-based phone Ottawa Business Journal
CounterPath Launches VoIP Softphone for Outlook Enterprise VoIP Planet
Natural Convergence Partners With CounterPath to Introduce USB ... MarketWatch
all 21 news articles


Free VoIP Calls: Make Free International Phone Calls
ITworld.com, MA - 1 hour ago
by Nisha Garg Free VoIP calls allow people to reinvent the telephony service in a special way. Now, people can forward calls to any place of the world ...


ARC and Hellosoft Offer a VoIP Solution That Doubles the Channel ...
MarketWatch - Dec 3, 2008
"We chose Hellosoft's highly optimized, VoIP software solution, because it delivers excellent voice quality while requiring less processing power on our ...


Ingate Partners With Codima to Enable Successful VoIP Installations
MarketWatch - 14 hours ago
Ingate and Codima will create a vertical offering to provide SIP-based VoIP pre-assessment and post-deployment tools from Codima Toolbox combined with ...


Cheap VoIP calls: Access Calls at Unbelievable Rates
ITworld.com, MA - Dec 3, 2008
With this high-end technology, the users can easily access cheap VoIP calls without any hassles. This in turn helps the users to save huge amount of money ...


TMCnet

8x8 Places Renewed Emphasis on Cost Benefits of VoIP
TMCnet - 5 hours ago
By Erik Linask When VoIP adoption hit the mainstream markets — both business and consumer — the primary focus was on the cost savings offered by migrating ...
VegaStream and pbxsnip Debut Survivability Solution TMCnet
all 2 news articles


Reuters

In the News: No Clearwire VoIP Soon, 8x8 Prices for the Downturn
VoIP-News, CA - 9 hours ago
The demise of EQO and the launch of LightEdge SIP trunking also made headlines this week. by Robert Poe | December 4, 2008 Clearwire Corp. and Sprint Nextel ...
Clearwire's 100-Day Agenda: Devices, VoIP and Roaming TMC Net
Update on Mobile WiMAX - Is it really mobile? Part I, US Deployments WiMax.com
GigaOM Interview With Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff GigaOm
Datamation - The Viodi View
all 461 news articles


Turn your iPod touch into a VoIP phone with Truphone
ZDNet Blogs - 16 hours ago
I’ve talked about the Truphone VoIP solution here on this blog a couple of times in the past and have had it on my iPhone for several months. ...
iPod touch gets VoIP, steals some iPhone thunder ZDNet Blogs
all 2 news articles


Streamcore Guarantees Success of Large VoIP Deployments, Offers ...
MarketWatch - Dec 3, 2008
Streamcore solutions are already widely used by enterprises to guarantee VoIP performance by automatically prioritizing VoIP flows competing with other ...

VOIP - Google News

home | site map | Voip Friends | Resource Directory
© 2006