mobloc8

Another article on the controversial Vonage VoIP 911 service, and the Texas attorney general’s lawsuit against them.

A sticking point seems to be the fact that Vonage requires manual activation of the 911 service, where the consumer needs to ring up and specify the address at which the phone is installed so that emergency calls can be routed to the correct PSAP.

Some are suggesting that Vonage should collect the customer’s address when the VoIP service is first ordered, and activate the 911 service before shipping the equipment. But Vonage counters that they never really know what address the equipment will be installed at. In fact, one of the benefits of Vonage’s VoIP service is that the customer can move the phone to wherever they have broadband access. When that happens, the customer is supposed to ring up and have their 911 address updated.

The software to map the subscriber’s physical address to the nearest PSAP is provided by Intrado.

It’ll be interesting to see where this case ends up. The cynic in me thinks that the incumbent phone companies will leverage the E911 issue to stall the rollout of VoIP and protect their lucrative voice business, or force VoIP providers to pay them to access 911 services. What do you think?

Source.

In his blog, Om Malik, senior writer for Business 2.0 magazine, gives his opinion on the Vonage VoIP E911 case.

Hopefully all the media attention this case is getting will help pave the way to allow VoIP providers to access E911 PSAPs.

From Engadget.

Vonage is being sued for deceptive trade practices by the Texas state attorney general because their VoIP service has 911 calling disabled by default, and doesn’t make it clear enough that it needs to be activated by the purchaser.

This case is a flow-on from the recent shooting incident where a girl tried to call 911 after her parents were shot during a home invasion, but her call didn’t go through because the family had a Vonage VoIP phone without 911 calling enabled. Her parents survived the attack, luckily.

Full details of the suit are posted at the Texas Attorney General web site.

It’s a thorny issue, but more work needs to be done to get support for VoIP calls and tracing for 911 emergency services.

More coverage from the LA Times.

What are your thoughts? Is Vonage in the wrong? Are they being deceptive, or are their customer warnings and information adequate?