Fergie's Tech Blog

FCC Backs Off on Internet Phone Deadline

An AP newswire article by Bruce Meyerson, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

The Federal Communications Commission backed off again Tuesday on enforcing a deadline for Internet phone service providers to disconnect all customers who haven't acknowledged that they understand it may be hard to reach a live emergency dispatcher when dialing 911.

The agency explained that the status reports required from every Internet phone company last week showed that by "repeatedly prompting subscribers through a variety of means, the majority of providers .... have obtained acknowledgments from nearly all, if not all, of their subscribers."

The decision came a day before a deadline that would have required Internet phone companies to cut off at least 10,000 of the estimated 2.7 million users of the service in the United States.

The FCC said providers who have received confirmations from at least 90 percent of their subscribers will no longer face the disconnection requirement, but still must continue seeking the remaining acknowledgments.

All carriers below the 90 percent threshold will have until Oct. 31 to reach that level and avoid the disconnection requirement.

posted by Fergie @ 9/27/2005 03:38:00 PM