Tens of thousands of VoIP customers may face losing their service Monday for failure to comply with the guidelines of the Federal Communications Commission regarding 911 emergency.
VoIP services have been emailing their customers to notify them of potential problems with dialing 911. Customers are supposed to respond to these emails indicating that they understand.
If they do not respond, they may just lose their service due to orders from the FCC. The FCC is also requiring VoIP services to feature 911 capabilities by sometime in November. Karl Bode of Broadband Reports writes:
If you don’t respond to your VoIP provider’s emails concerning the limitations of 911 service, you could find your service terminated early next week. It’s part of an FCC order many providers claim is unreasonable, and at least one is suing over.
Back in May a mother blamed Vonage 911 service for her baby’s death, despite the fact Vonage proved to local news outlets that the 911 call in question went through – twice. That didn’t seem to matter. This and other similar reports created an uproar, and VoIP 911 became a hot political issue.
Many VoIP customers are not happy about the FCC’s order, but they would probably feel differently if VoIP was their only means of getting help in an emergency, and they didn’t know what to do. On the other hand, most of the ones who are angry are probably the ones that do know what to do. As they say, life isn’t always fair.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
