VoIP Industry Makes Progress on 911 Implementation
The VoIP industry has made a “great progress” in implementing 911 technologies in the past year, the VON Coalition said in a progress report on its agreement with NENA (CD Dec 2 p1) expected to be released today (Wed.). “Industry is already stepping into the marketplace with E911 solutions that are more technologically sophisticated than were available at the time the agreement was developed,” the report said: “With additional development, VoIP 911 services promise to be far superior to the services offered to wireline customers today.” The report is expected to be handed to policy-makers, as well as widely distributed among the VoIP industry and 911 community, officials said.
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“The progress is being made, there are positive signs here,” VON Coalition Exec. Dir. Jim Kohlenberger told us. He said VoIP had a potential to improve 911 service in ways that wireline would never do. But he said to unlock that potential, policy-makers, industry and the 911 community should work together to help overcome a set of emerging policy challenges. “The VoIP community would be concerned that automatically putting VoIP in boxes that limit its capabilities would prevent us from achieving more advanced emergency solutions that are down the road,” he said.
In less than a year, since the VON/NENA agreement was reached last Dec., progress has been made on all key points of the agreement, according to the report. In fact, it said, almost every major residential and non- enterprise VoIP provider provides “a service such that VoIP customers dialing 911 do reach emergency services.” The study, based on the responses from 8 of the 10 VoIP providers who signed the initial agreement, said some examples of the progress include: (1) Ahead of expectations, 50% of survey participants go beyond the initial 10-digit solution and provide automatic call back number and location information to emergency call center, similar to traditional wireline service. (2) 80% inform PSAPs about their approach to 911 service when they enter a market. (3) 100% of respondents support NENA and industry work towards long-term IP-based solutions and IP- enabled PSAPs. (4) 75% of retail providers collect and remit state and local 911 fees for VoIP customers. (5) 100% inform customers about the level of 911 service provided.
“Ensuring sustainable funding for 911 services is a vital part of the equation,” the report said. It said signatories to the VON/NENA agreement supported an administrative approach to maintaining funding 911 resources at a level equivalent to those generated by current or evolving funding processes. “Although it is unclear whether VoIP providers have full access to the same databases and network facilities as do traditional phone companies, they are stepping up to the plate with a commitment to pay into the system,” the report said. For example, it said 75% of the signatories offering a residential retail product already collected and remitted state and local 911 fees for VoIP customers, while the rest said they would do so as they gain access to essential 911 switches and databases.
In the long-term, the report said “developing and implementing the I-3 solution [that support advanced future 911 solutions] and transforming the transitional PSAPs into IP-enabled PSAPs is likely to require a new forward thinking funding model and national commitment. The National 911 Program Office, in enacting the Enhance 911 Act pf 2004, can play a vital role in the development of IP-enabled solutions for 911.”
“VoIP 911 has been used as a flag by a number of different groups to state their position,” NENA Govt. Affairs Dir. Steve Seitz told us: “This paper is saying that if you are going to work on solutions that is the way to go. But if you are going to make generic arguments just for the purpose of making an argument we are not interested.” Seitz said the FCC had indicated it was very interested in VoIP capabilities. “We want to make sure that we are talking about solutions and not just rhetoric,” he said: “We can’t have debates going for years and years. We want to make sure that 911 issue is resolved and to do that you need to come to the table with solutions, that’s why we believe the agreement with the VON Coalition is important.”