Despite misgivings aired by Net phone companies and more recently by U.S. senators, tens of thousands of VoIP users could see their service disrupted this week.
The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled on Wednesday to begin enforcing its requirement that VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) providers using the public telephone network make sure that 100 percent of their customers know of potential limitations to accessing 911 services. Customers who haven't acknowledged those warnings are to be disconnected or, if the FCC approves, restricted from nonemergency VoIP usage.
According to industry groups and the latest FCC filings by VoIP providers, as many as 50,000 Net phone users--about half the estimate floated last month--could be disconnected or see their service curtailed this week.
Originally, the FCC said VoIP providers had to cut off service to all customers who hadn't responded affirmatively to the providers' warnings. In its most recent notice, the agency indicated that it would tolerate a so-called "soft" or "warm" disconnect, whereby all non-911 VoIP calls would be blocked but that 911 calls would continue to go to the appropriate public-safety answering point.
Appearing late last week at a Senate hearing on disaster communications, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin indicated no plans to bump the deadline again, despite concerns voiced by lawmakers about the hard cutoff requirement.
Vonage, one of the industry leaders with more than a million VoIP lines, said in a Sept. 22 filing required by the FCC that it has received acknowledgment from 98 percent of its customers and, with the FCC's consent, plans to initiate a "soft" disconnect process that would allow its customers to make outgoing 911 calls and receive all incoming calls. Other companies have suggested that they would adopt similar policies.
For some providers, disconnection is no issue. SBC Communications and Qwest Communications International, for example, reported that they have received acknowledgment from 100 percent of their customers. Time Warner Cable and Comcast said in their filings that they have received 100 percent acknowledgment through their own means--that is, they already warned of 911 limitations in the subscriber's contract.
The FCC first issued the 911 requirements in early June and set a June 29 deadline for compliance, but the decision drew an outcry from VoIP providers who found the instructions too vague. The regulators then announced that they would delay any enforcement action until Aug. 30 and, under fire again--this time with public-safety groups joining in--made an 11th-hour decision to postpone the deadline until Sept. 28.
The idea that the government makes living better, safer, or cheaper is the second greatest human myth. The lowest and meanest members of society grab are drawn to political power, and the sheep go wherever they are led. I'm in the tiny minority whose members want to run their own lives, and don't need to official parasites to decided what sort of phone service we need. It's your government: you pay for it.
Why make all these voice over int. companys comply with the 9ll thing when the wireline company I use does not have 9ll service? They have been in business for at least 25 years. Let's turn them off too!
Since when can the government interject in the way a business lawfully conducts business with its customers. To force private citizens (over which the FCC has no jurisdiction) to reply to some acknowledgement about a service that is mostly useless (particularly when the NYPD is involved) is ridiculous.
The FCC are stooges for Verizon, Qwest, BellSouth, SBC, Comcast, Time-Warner, and Cablevision. I thought the FCC was supposed to be their regulation, not their little army used to eliminate competition. The only reason cell phone networks exist is because they are owned by telcos, but VoIP's are independent and a threat to them, so they have to call the big, bad, FCC to do their dirty work.
First the FCC says that the telcos don't have to share their 911 infrastructures, now this. Can you say conspiracy?
The FCC should dismantled. The Justice Dept. had to break up the monopoly that the FCC allowed, rememer AT&T? I would even begin to go into the way they extort money from radio stations. Suffice to say, corruption is alive and well in America. To the FCC I have to say, Thanks for nothing.
Web giant is spending $120 million to beef up its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, according to filings with the city reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News.
The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 could make its debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, according to a leaked promotional image.
MIT creates a simulation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Spacewar. A relic of the early days of minicomputers, it was one of the first computer video games and set the stage for many others, including Asteroids.
is the second greatest human myth. The lowest and meanest
members of society grab are drawn to political power, and the
sheep go wherever they are led. I'm in the tiny minority whose
members want to run their own lives, and don't need to official
parasites to decided what sort of phone service we need. It's your
government: you pay for it.
The FCC are stooges for Verizon, Qwest, BellSouth, SBC, Comcast, Time-Warner, and Cablevision. I thought the FCC was supposed to be their regulation, not their little army used to eliminate competition. The only reason cell phone networks exist is because they are owned by telcos, but VoIP's are independent and a threat to them, so they have to call the big, bad, FCC to do their dirty work.
First the FCC says that the telcos don't have to share their 911 infrastructures, now this. Can you say conspiracy?
The FCC should dismantled. The Justice Dept. had to break up the monopoly that the FCC allowed, rememer AT&T? I would even begin to go into the way they extort money from radio stations. Suffice to say, corruption is alive and well in America. To the FCC I have to say, Thanks for nothing.