[blu] Re: [blu] Re: VoIP quality -- 911 reliability

[jc at trillian.mit.edu (John Chambers)]

Ben Jackson wrote:
| On Mon, 23 May 2005, Jerry Feldman wrote:
| > Ben Jackson <bbj at innismir.net> wrote:
| >
| > > Which, quite frankly, is sad. These VoIP companies merely provide an
| > > interface to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). They do not
| > > provided telephone service. Sadly, customers and their marketing
| > > deparments think otherwise.
| > Their marketing departments are selling a service and their customers
| > expect them to deliver on what marketing is selling.
|
...
|
| In reality, that's not true. Cell phones didn't provide E911 for over
| a decade, and still don't provide E911 very well, so why can't VoIP
| get the same treatment?

Perhaps  it's  a  difference  of  "perception".   Cell  phones   were
considered  something  rather  different  from  land-line phones, and
people didn't really think of them as competitors.  VoIP is perceived
as an alternative to POTS.  As such, the phone companies are dead set
against it, and  are  trying  to  get  the  regulators  to  impose  a
requirement  that  can't  be met (or which requires going through the
POTS phone companies, who can  then  charge  exorbitantly  for  their
cooperation).   Though,  of  course,  the phone companies are already
using VoIP widely, except for that "last mile".

| I'm curious what would have happened to the cell phone industry if the FCC
| came down like a ton of bricks on them at the same point in their
| lifetime.

It would have been a "drop  dead"  requirement,  and  would  have  in
effect  outlawed the sale of cell-phone service.  Very nice if you're
one of their competitors.  Most companies, especially  those  holding
legal  monopolies,  would  love  to  see  the government outlaw a new
technology that introduces competition into their pseudo-market.  The
best  way  to  do this would be to legally require something that the
new technology can't do.

In the case of wired Internet, it's fairly obvious that the  location
is  available  somewhere  in  the system.  With cable, DSL, or even a
modem connection, the location of the connector is known to  most  of
the  companies  involved.  The problem is getting this information to
the emergency-service site.  Few of them are using VoIP  yet,  except
accidentally,  when  their  phone  company has implemented it without
telling anyone.  To get from a VoIP phone to the emergency personnel,
the last link almost always goes through a traditional phone service.
That phone company is in a position to block VoIP calls,  and  that's
exactly what they're doing. If they can't do that, they'll cheerfully
agree to passing along the call - for a very high price.