Agency links expansion to emergency calling
A federal agency has barred providers of Internet-based phone service from offering it to new customers in areas of the country where the companies don't offer enhanced emergency-call service.
The halt, mandated by the Federal Communications Commission, means AT&T Inc. -- the nation's second-largest seller of Voice over Internet Protocol service, or VoIP -- will be able to recruit new customers only in those Seattle neighborhoods where it has made so-called enhanced 911 available.
Those areas could be "just blocks away" from areas of the city where that service, often referred to as E911, can't be obtained, AT&T spokeswoman Claudia Jones said.
Vonage Holdings Corp., the largest seller of VoIP, said it won't obey the ban and will continue trying to recruit and sign up customers in Seattle and elsewhere in the country.
"Land-line and wireless companies are selling to customers without the availability of E911, and we are going to continue marketing and selling until we get further guidance from the FCC," Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Shulz said.
E911 provides the caller's geographical location when 911 is dialed.
Citing public safety concerns, the FCC in May ordered companies selling VOIP to ensure that callers can reach an emergency dispatcher when they dial 911. The dispatchers must be able to tell where callers are located and the numbers from which they are calling.
The FCC gave VoIP providers 120 days to comply, saying that if they failed to meet the deadline, they could no longer market their service or accept new customers in areas that didn't have E911.
They will not have to disconnect current customers who don't have E911 service, as some providers had feared.
The deadline arrived Monday. House and Senate lawmakers had urged FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to give companies more time and more tools to speed deployment, but no extension was granted.
In its compliance report to the FCC, Vonage said 26 percent of its customer base has E911 services. The company, which has more than 1 million subscribers, said it is capable of transmitting a callback number and location for 100 percent of its subscribers but is still waiting for cooperation from competitors that control the 911 network.
AT&T told the FCC that 65 percent of its customer base has E911 service. AT&T offers VoIP to about 57,000 customers through its CallVantage service.
Among Seattle-area companies offering VoIP, Speakeasy, with "thousands" of customers in this area, has provided E911 for roughly half of its service area, spokeswoman Lynn Brackpool said.
AccessLine Communications Corp. of Bellevue, with 12,000 customers in Washington state, said it offers E911 in all its service areas.
Elsewhere, SunRocket, which has more than 50,000 subscribers nationwide, said it had equipped 96 percent of its customers with full 911 services.
FCC spokesman David Fiske declined to discuss possible enforcement actions against offending companies.
"At this stage," he said, "the agency is focused on the compliance filings by VoIP providers."
David Kaut, a telecom analyst at Legg Mason, said VoIP companies will take a hit if the FCC follows through on its threat.
"If you can't add customers in, say, a third of your territories, that's a significant part of the market where you are all of a sudden capped," Kaut said. "These are supposed to be growth companies."
VoIP shifts calls from wires and switches, using computers and broadband connections to convert sounds into data and transmit them over the Internet. In many cases, subscribers use conventional phones hooked up to high-speed Internet lines. But the service can be mobile, making it difficult to ensure that the call goes to the correct local emergency center.
There are about 3.6 million VoIP users in the United States. Of those, about half get their service from cable-TV companies that already provide E911 capabilities.
Other providers offer a 911 service that directs emergency calls to a general administrative number, but those lines haven't always been staffed around the clock.
The FCC's order applies to companies selling VoIP service that uses the public phone network to place and terminate calls.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/250212_vonage30.html
A federal agency has barred providers of Internet-based phone service from offering it to new customers in areas of the country where the companies don't offer enhanced emergency-call service.
The halt, mandated by the Federal Communications Commission, means AT&T Inc. -- the nation's second-largest seller of Voice over Internet Protocol service, or VoIP -- will be able to recruit new customers only in those Seattle neighborhoods where it has made so-called enhanced 911 available.
Those areas could be "just blocks away" from areas of the city where that service, often referred to as E911, can't be obtained, AT&T spokeswoman Claudia Jones said.
Vonage Holdings Corp., the largest seller of VoIP, said it won't obey the ban and will continue trying to recruit and sign up customers in Seattle and elsewhere in the country.
"Land-line and wireless companies are selling to customers without the availability of E911, and we are going to continue marketing and selling until we get further guidance from the FCC," Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Shulz said.
E911 provides the caller's geographical location when 911 is dialed.
Citing public safety concerns, the FCC in May ordered companies selling VOIP to ensure that callers can reach an emergency dispatcher when they dial 911. The dispatchers must be able to tell where callers are located and the numbers from which they are calling.
The FCC gave VoIP providers 120 days to comply, saying that if they failed to meet the deadline, they could no longer market their service or accept new customers in areas that didn't have E911.
They will not have to disconnect current customers who don't have E911 service, as some providers had feared.
The deadline arrived Monday. House and Senate lawmakers had urged FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to give companies more time and more tools to speed deployment, but no extension was granted.
In its compliance report to the FCC, Vonage said 26 percent of its customer base has E911 services. The company, which has more than 1 million subscribers, said it is capable of transmitting a callback number and location for 100 percent of its subscribers but is still waiting for cooperation from competitors that control the 911 network.
AT&T told the FCC that 65 percent of its customer base has E911 service. AT&T offers VoIP to about 57,000 customers through its CallVantage service.
Among Seattle-area companies offering VoIP, Speakeasy, with "thousands" of customers in this area, has provided E911 for roughly half of its service area, spokeswoman Lynn Brackpool said.
AccessLine Communications Corp. of Bellevue, with 12,000 customers in Washington state, said it offers E911 in all its service areas.
Elsewhere, SunRocket, which has more than 50,000 subscribers nationwide, said it had equipped 96 percent of its customers with full 911 services.
FCC spokesman David Fiske declined to discuss possible enforcement actions against offending companies.
"At this stage," he said, "the agency is focused on the compliance filings by VoIP providers."
David Kaut, a telecom analyst at Legg Mason, said VoIP companies will take a hit if the FCC follows through on its threat.
"If you can't add customers in, say, a third of your territories, that's a significant part of the market where you are all of a sudden capped," Kaut said. "These are supposed to be growth companies."
VoIP shifts calls from wires and switches, using computers and broadband connections to convert sounds into data and transmit them over the Internet. In many cases, subscribers use conventional phones hooked up to high-speed Internet lines. But the service can be mobile, making it difficult to ensure that the call goes to the correct local emergency center.
There are about 3.6 million VoIP users in the United States. Of those, about half get their service from cable-TV companies that already provide E911 capabilities.
Other providers offer a 911 service that directs emergency calls to a general administrative number, but those lines haven't always been staffed around the clock.
The FCC's order applies to companies selling VoIP service that uses the public phone network to place and terminate calls.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/250212_vonage30.html
