From owner-nanog@merit.edu Thu May 19 13:38:03 2005 Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 14:37:54 -0400 From: Jason Frisvold <xenophage0@gmail.com> Subject: Re: VoIP operators given 120-day deadline to implement E911 services

On 5/19/05, Bruce Pinsky <bep@whack.org> wrote:

...

That last part ought to be interesting to try and implement in 120 days:

"...must provide the emergency operator with the customer's callback number and location, regardless of whether the call is being made from the customer's home or elsewhere."

I'm not sure how VoIP operators are going to accomplish this.. The ugly method would be requiring the user to put in their location information when the VoIP device first goes online, but I'm not sure that's even remotely practical...

I know you can sometimes get generalized location information from an IP, but nowhere near what's needed for 911 operations..

Any insight on how this is going to be handled?

The story says the FCC is requiring a capability for the _customer_ to update their location/callback information when those things change. Now, since the VoIP _provider_ is being required to provide valid 'location' info, "regardless" of where the call originates, I suspect that we're going to see a lot of "phone disabled, until location info confirmed" if the IP address of the customer changes.

...

So what's the local 911 center I should be routed to when I'm at the Cebu Phillipines airport and making a VoIP call?

I favor routing _that_ emergency call directly to the Commisioner's desk and let *them* figure out what the necessary compliance action is! Seriously, though, if the phone is 'registered' as being in an area for which there _is_no_ U.S. 911/E-911 service, then any attempt to dial that 'number' should get an interecept message. Preferalbly a "useful" one, not just a generic "your call cannot be completed as dialed" or similar.