VoIP Providers 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.