Net Phones to be Cut Off Today!
Via CNET: The Federal Communications Commission plans to begin enforcing its requirement that Net phone services that connect to the public telephone network–known as "interconnected" services–receive acknowledgment from 100 percent of their customers about 911 limitations. That means customers who haven’t responded affirmatively by Aug. 29 must be cut off, the FCC said in a document released at the end of July…75,000 to 100,000 residential subscribers who could lose their service…some subscribers have not responded to the notices because they already received some sort of 911 service through their Internet phones and think they’re immune. At issue is access to the enhanced 911, or E911, system, which allows emergency operators to link a caller’s physical location with the phone number used to dial for help.
I knew there was a reason I hadn’t jumped on the net phone bandwagon yet! (Kidding…) But this is a good example of where technology too far ahead of infrastructure. Net phones are an amazing thing, but for those 75,000 to 100,000 customers who probably don’t even realize that they don’t have enhanced 911 service, they are not so good after all…are they?
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The deadline was extended another 30 days.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5843590.html
Sarah,
Safety should always be first so the e911 VOIP temporary fix is better than nothing. Cell phones are struggling with the same problem. Believe it or not WiFi could be the fix for both (see: http://www.eweek.com/article2/.....929,00.asp ). WiFi location positioning actually can be much more accurate than GPS. I am concerned when we seem to always address a new technology issues by passing laws that support legacy incumbents (telephone and cable companies) rather than move forward and actually improve our communication services. VOIP is nothing new, in fact your long distance calls have been running over VOIP for years. There will be virtually thousands of applications in location based services and many of them are life saving. Connecting to the legacy 911 services of the telephone company will not facilitate these new location based IP applications. Let’s put safety first and use what we have today but let’s not stop moving forward with better IP based network solutions and applications.
I agree with Larry. Quit with the stupid law passing and just fix things! I have Vonage and don’t have a problem with it at all. We have 911 service. We just had to sign up with them to show our location. If we need to call 911, we’ll use our cell phone. Isn’t it my business if I want to use 911 anyway? I mean, if I need it and I don’t have it then its my fault for not having it, right? There ARE choices out there and I choose to have cheaper telephone service and risk not having 911 if it doesn’t work.