Fergie's Tech Blog

Feds to enforce VoIP cutoffs?

Anne Broache writes in C|Net News:

Despite misgivings aired by Net phone companies and more recently by U.S. senators, tens of thousands of VoIP users could see their service disrupted this week.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled on Wednesday to begin enforcing its requirement that VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) providers that use the public telephone network make sure that 100 percent of their customers know whether they can access 911 services. Those customers who haven't acknowledged that they can or cannot access the emergency network are to be restricted from regular VoIP usage.

According to industry groups and the latest FCC filings by VoIP providers, as many as 50,000 Net phone users--about half the estimate floated last month--could be disconnected or see their service curtailed this week.

Originally, the FCC said VoIP providers had to cut off service to all customers who hadn't responded affirmatively to the providers' warnings. In its most recent notice, the agency indicated that it would tolerate a so-called "soft" or "warm" disconnect, whereby all non-911 VoIP calls would be blocked but that 911 calls would continue to go to the appropriate public-safety answering point.

Appearing late last week at a Senate hearing on disaster communications, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin indicated no plans to bump the deadline again, despite concerns voiced by lawmakers about the hard cutoff requirement.

posted by Fergie @ 9/26/2005 05:05:00 PM