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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.
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