[May 19, 2005]

It’s an Order: FCC Will Require VoIP E911 Access

BY JOHANNE TORRES

I guess it was just a matter of getting an official confirmation from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today that the agency would go ahead and require VoIP providers to get their act together in about a four-month period to fix the E911 access dilemma. Most of us in the industry were just waiting for the FCC to have its meeting this morning and announce the news, even though we already had a pretty good idea that the issue would end up the way it did this morning.

In an official statement issued this morning, the agency explained that it took steps to protect consumers by requiring that certain providers of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone service supply enhanced 911 (E911) emergency calling capabilities to their customers as a mandatory feature of the service. The FCC communicated it hopes to minimize the likelihood of situations like recent incidents in which users of interconnected VoIP dialed 911 but were not able to reach emergency operators by implementing an order.

Specifically, the order issued today would make it obligatory for interconnected VoIP service providers that are similar to their traditional telephone counterparts to enable customers to receive calls from and terminate calls to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). However, the agency says the order would not place obligations on other IP-based service providers, such as those that provide instant messaging or Internet gaming services, because although these services may contain a voice component, the agency explained, customers of these services cannot receive calls from and place calls to the PSTN.

The Order adopted today includes the following stipulations:

• Interconnected VoIP providers must deliver all 911 calls to the customer’s local emergency operator. This must be a standard, rather than optional, feature of the service.
• Interconnected VoIP providers must provide emergency operators with the call back number and location information of their customers (i.e., E911) where the emergency operator is capable of receiving it. Although the customer must provide the location information, the VoIP provider must provide the customer a means of updating this information, whether he or she is at home or away from home.
• By the effective date, interconnected VoIP providers must inform their customers, both new and existing, of the E911 capabilities and limitations of their service.
• The incumbent LECs are required to provide access to their E911 networks to any requesting telecommunications carrier. They must continue to provide access to trunks, selective routers, and E911 databases to competing carriers. The Commission will closely monitor this obligation.

The agency said that interconnected VoIP providers MUST comply with these requirements, and submit to the commission a letter detailing such compliance, no later than 120 days after the effective date of the order. The commission also stated its intention to adopt, in a future order, an advanced E911 solution that includes a method for determining the customer’s location without the customer having to self report this information.