[Asterisk-biz] 911 update

[Craig Guy]

That sucks big time.  Makes me glad I don't live in the USA.  In Australia
we have no such requirement for emergency access.  Legislation in this
country seems to only mandate that carriers provide fixed rate local calls
to residential subscribers.  It's only the monopoly government telco that
has a universal service obligation.

For the sake of the US VoIP industry I hope your FCC wakes up and pulls its
head out of its arse soon.

They had a case here a few years ago where a kid in a remote area died from
an asthma attack after his phone service had been down for two weeks or so.
All that happened was that the government introduced legislation that
effectively mandated an SLA to fix a broken telephony service within 48
hours or something, and only then if the subscriber notified the telco that
someone with a medical condition lived at the address.  This piece of
legislation only affects the government monopoly telco.  As far as other
providers go, they only have to provide for people to be able to log faults,
there doesn't appear to be any requirement to actually fix them.

There was another article in the news earlier this week about someone who
dialled 911 after seeing a car accident outside their home (our emergency
number is 000).  The goverment is apparently considering a bill to force
television stations to include a voiceover or notice in every American tv
show to dial 000 instead of 911.

Craig

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason P. Talley" <jason at nuvio.com>
To: <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 10:52 PM
Subject: [Asterisk-biz] 911 update


All:



The FCC went "sunshine" yesterday regarding its May 19th meeting which
includes 911.  Thought I would give you a quick update of the draft
language and where things stand right now.  It is not good.



It appears that the FCC is going to require "interconnected" VoIP
providers to deliver an emergency call to the proper PSAP with ALI
information (and update the databases).  This includes all PSAPs and
means connections through ILECs and RLECS.  Just using the RBOCs alone
will not even come close to satisfying the standard.  This is much more
stringent than even the cellular industry has to adhere to.  Before
someone on this list goes off and says that this is ok, realize that
this means interconnecting to more than 6600+ PSAPs, devising Psuedo ANI
type technology, updating databases, etc.  This is no small task.  And
here is the real kicker, the FCC is currently discussing an
implementation date of 120 days.  I am sure that some waivers will be
possible, but obtaining a waiver is not an easy or trivial task.  We
have no rights to interconnect with any of these services, and in some
cases, especially RLECs, there is no legal requirement that they open
the network up even if we were certificated in the state.  Also, the FCC
appears to specifically preserve our liability for lawsuits.  This is
contrary to every other telecom provider who may be subject to state
protections (remember we are interstate now with none of those
benefits).



Just in case you are wondering who will be affected, consider this.  The
FCC is stating that if you touch the PSTN in any way you will be
required to comply.  This may well affect people like Skype (with Skype
out), FWD, and most of you on this list.  The FCC does not seem to care
if you are using ATAs, IP phones, or softphones.  The fact that you may
have to boot a computer to use the service seems to be unimportant.



This is bad stuff for the industry.  I am hopeful that during the next
week as staff meets to work on this a more moderate rule will be
adopted, especially as it relates to implementation time frame.  This is
not a question of if anymore, just a question of when.  Public safety is
important and should be a core component of any offering, but reality
needs to be addressed as well.



-jason



Jason P. Talley

Chief Executive Officer

NUVIO CORPORATION

Phone: 816-444-4422 ext. 6711

Fax: 816-333-5915

http://www.nuvio.com <http://www.nuvio.com/>

jason at nuvio.com






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