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VoIP
Provides begin to offer E-911
July 26, 2005
AT&T announced on July 11, 2005 that it will begin introducing
Enhanced 911 service (E-911) to its AT&T CallVantage®
Service users in a phased deployment to be largely completed
later this summer. E-911 service delivers a caller's name,
telephone number and service address directly to the console
of the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) in
the event of an emergency. AT&T will provide this service
to their customers for no additional cost. Most VoIP providers
already have begun to implement this service do to a ruling
by the FCC mandating that every service provider equipped
their customers with an Enhanced 911.
Exceptions for CallVantage® customers will be for subscribers
who have selected out-of-area telephone numbers as their primary
VoIP lines. For example, if a New Jersey resident chose a
telephone number in another part of the state, or in another
state, he or she would not qualify for E-911 service and would
remain on AT&T's 911 Alternative Emergency Dialing service
until the company is prepared to implement an out-of-area
E-911 solution.
A similar exception will be for customers who travel with
their telephone adapters are cautioned to maintain an alternate
means of accessing emergency services. While AT&T enables
customers to update their service address, in such instances
customers may be better served by using a hotel or other local
phone to place an emergency call until real-time updates are
made possible.
AT&T CallVantage® Service subscribers can determine
their account status by logging on to their personal Web portal
and visiting the Account Management & Settings page where
they can review the emergency service type they are currently
subscribed to. All users are urged to proactively check their
911 status online, read their 911 notification letters and
not to place test calls to 911 as this creates an unnecessary
burden on the nation's emergency calling system. In the interest
of public safety, AT&T reminds customers that VoIP E-911
does not work if there is an outage in electrical power or
broadband service.
SunRocket, one of the nation's leading Internet phone service
providers, began to implement their Enhanced 911 in the middle
of May. They wanted to meet the FCC regulations ahead of time.
The FCC ordered that all VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
providers implement Enhanced 911 (E-911) capabilities within
the next several months; all SunRocket customers in the company's
service regions are equipped with E-911. Not only does SunRocket
offer E-911 service so does ViaTalk a free standard feature
that all their customers receive, Packet8 also offers E-911
but for a monthly charge.
AT&T may be a little behind implementing this service
but they come in well under the bar in which the FCC set which
says that everyone must be E-911 ready by the end of August.
The FCC gave providers 120 days to implement E-911 capabilities.
This will be a costly change for VoIP providers but an important
service that will ultimately save the lives of their customers.
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