|
Coalition Seeks Extension to FCC E9-1-1 Notice Deadline
By TED GLANZER
TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist
The VON Coalition has requested a 90-day extension of time to comply with the FCC's notification requirements in its E9-1-1 order.
The VON Coalition asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a 90-day extension of time to comply with the subscriber notification provisions of the commission's order governing enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) capabilities, the Associated Press reported earlier this week.
The FCC has given VoIP providers until Aug. 29 to obtain notification from 100 percent of their subscribers acknowledging that they understand the possible problems they may face when dialing 9-1-1 emergency service.
VoIP service providers have until Aug. 30 to discontinue the service of subscribers who have not sent in acknowledgements.
The proposed extension would be available to all VoIP service providers who have sent correspondence concerning the limitations of their 9-1-1 service and who are "actively" continuing their efforts to obtain customer confirmations.
In a letter sent to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on Thursday, the coalition, which includes AT&T, BT and Covad, said that shutting off service would be akin to cutting its nose off to spite its face.
"In many cases, these VoIP consumers already have access to 9-1-1 or E9-1-1 with their VoIP service and can only be harmed by service disconnection," the letter said. "It would be tragic if a customer who today may have E9-1-1 as a part of their VoIP service had it shut off and then attempted to use that service in an emergency."
Furthermore, the coalition said that requiring service providers to discontinue service would be an unprecedented action taken by the FCC that would "inevitably impede commerce and cause consumer inconvenience and could even leave VoIP customers stranded in an emergency."
Indeed, according to the AP's report, Vonage has obtained confirmations from 96 percent of its 800,000 subscribers. That's a nice batting average until you consider that some 31,000 subscribers stand to have their service disconnected on Tuesday if the VON Coalition's request falls on deaf ears.
The FCC's order, which ultimately requires all VoIP providers to offer E9-1-1 capabilities to all of their subscribers by Nov. 28, was issued in response to several highly publicized incidents in which interconnected VoIP users were not able to reach emergency operators.
Concerns over VoIP/9-1-1 issue were raised well before those incidents ever took place; check out Rich Tehrani's call for action back in October 2004.
-----
Ted Glanzer is assistant editor for TMCnet. For more articles by Ted Glanzer, please visit:
http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100033&nm=Ted%20Glanzer
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
