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Intrado Offers Comprehensive E911 SolutionIntrado’s comprehensive E911 solution meets the requirements of the recent FCC mandate for VoIP service providers. By TED GLANZER, TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist The Federal Communications Commission was roundly lauded for its recent mandate that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers must include enhanced 911 (E911) services essentially by year end. VoIP service carriers, however, were still left with a dilemma. With whom should they partner to offer the emergency service? Basically, VSPs have three options. First, they could cut a deal with a local telephone company, with whom they are direct competitors (it can be done – see Vonage’s deal with SBC). Second, they could contract with a communications company, yet another competitor, which provides the infrastructure for the E911 service (see 8X8’s deal with Level 3 Communications, Inc.) Third, they can contract through a third party company, such as Intrado, which announced June 14 that its V9-1-1 Mobility Service solution meets the requirements of the FCC’s E911 mandate. A company press release provides the following: “Successful enhanced 911 call delivery requires VoIP providers to route an Internet telephony 911 call to the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) and to deliver the caller’s call back number and location to the 9-1-1 call taker’s computer screen.” Successful E911 call delivery requires VoIP providers to route and Internet telephony call to the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) and to deliver the caller’s call-back number and location to the 911 call taker’s computer screen. The following information and capabilities are required: --Instructions on how to route the call and the caller’s address to the right PSAP. --A series of “meet me” points to facilitate 9-1-1 network access. --Local 9-1-1 selective router connectivity to deliver the call “natively” Intrado V9-1-1 Mobility Service gives VoIP service providers these capabilities on a national basis. With V9-1-1, VoIP service providers will be able to seamlessly route their subscribers’ 9-1-1 calls into the dedicated Wireline E911 Network in a manner that mirrors a traditional wireline E9-1-1 call.” Officials from the Colorado-based company said that they looked forward to working with VoIP providers to meet the deadlines imposed by the FCC. “Intrado is committed to quickly and cost effectively supporting VoIP providers’ plans for FCC compliance,” said Stephen Meer, Intrado chief technology officer. “We greatly appreciate the FCC’s leadership on this very important issue and look forward to continuing to work with the entire 911 community to meet the FCC’s timelines.” ----- 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%20Gl anzer |