VoIP E911 Said Hampered By High Cost Of Technology

Drawing another comparison between VoIP and wireless, VON participants told us VoIP E911 could be enabled by GPS chips installed in end-user devices. But they said it will probably take another couple years before such capability could be put into effect, because of high costs. “If E911 hasn’t been fully addressed at this point in the wireless industry, it is reasonable to assume that the VoIP industry will require some time to develop its own unique solutions,” Whitt said.

Henry Sinnreich, MCI distinguished member of engineering, estimated GPS chip would add about $20 to the cost of a VoIP phone, saying manufacturing companies don’t yet see it as a good business decision. Vonage Exec. Vp- Operations Michael Tribolet agreed: “GPS chips are expensive. Over time, when the price comes down, as soon as it fits to the price point that’s consumer friendly, it’s easy to integrate it in the box.” He said most GPS chips were $12-$15. “I think when it gets to a $10 to $8 range, we'll be able to implement them into the box.”

Acknowledging GPS could help make VoIP phones E911- capable, industry representatives said it wasn’t a perfect solution. Sinnreich said GPS would work well in an open environment, but it would be less effective indoors. Jachner said GPS required availability of “a line of sight visibility to several satellites at a time and the idea of using GPS to locate VoIP desk phones within buildings runs into technical difficulties. So, simply GPS indoors does not work.” He said use of “Wi-Fi location techniques” would be more efficient “so that indoor radio network that is rather short-range and has multiple cells” would provide “triangulation to figure out where you are.” He said if “all of the systems were truly integrated and interoperable” and use “rich presence” technology, then “that would lead to enhancements of what we have today on E911.” Sinnreich suggested Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) could be another solution. Unlike GPS, it’s based on utilizing a network server that contains both the applicable IP address and the server’s location.

“The best solution would be an integration of GPS outside, Wi-Fi inside and other forms of presence detection,” Jachner said. He said the use of the information collected by the “presence” service for E911 was “a very appropriate” application, saying it would also be “cheap to deploy given that it was built out for other reasons.” But he said implementation of presence technology for VoIP E911 was “at least a few years away.”

“Before presence technology truly can be used for 911 services, there needs to be a broad deployment and reliability, including interoperability between systems,” Jachner said: “I truly agree that as presence systems become deployed and interoperable, a linkage is created between a fixed line phone and home mobile phones and enterprise phones. Specifically, around location 911, that would be a very powerful way to implement that.”

Jachner said use of Wi-Fi hot spots to locate VoIP phone users would require a “consensus at the national level that such improvement is appropriate. There would be an expense for deployers of such equipment.” But he noted that “before a consensus is reached, there is also a need for technological solution.”

Tribolet said E911 capability was “an additional thing [consumers] would want to have.” He said the consumer demand would be high enough to make GPS implementation profitable for providers. “I am hoping that will happen within the next 18 to 36 months. It does take some time.” Saying it took the wireless industry a long time to implement E911, he said: “I think it will take [VoIP] industry a little bit of time too. We are looking at it from an application standpoint. The hardware is an easy part, but how do you enable applications to make that happen?” Said Whitt: “A lot of issues have to do with interconnection with the PSAPs, and making sure the infrastructure is upgraded sufficiently to allow for IP-based solutions.” - Susan Polyakova