Fergie's Tech Blog

Senators back VoIP Net phone reprieve

Anne Broache writes in C|Net News:

Internet phone customers without 911 service would get a reprieve from forcible disconnection, according to a bill approved Wednesday by a Senate committee.

The measure says the Federal Communications Commission must rethink recent regulations that have recently caused an outcry from voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers--and at times, public safety officials.

The senators aren't, however, backing away from the requirement that VoIP providers offer e911 service. "This came home painfully to me because of a mother in Florida that raced to her telephone as her baby daughter was in a dire circumstance," Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Republican, said at Wednesday's Commerce Committee meeting. "It was VoIP. She didn't know she didn't have e911, and the baby died."

posted by Fergie @ 11/02/2005 04:05:00 PM