Communications regulators the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have given Internet telephone service providers another month for their customers to acknowledge their awareness of the limitations of dialing 911 from a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) based telephone.
The main concern of the FCC is that VoIP consumers are unaware that dialing 911 from a VoIP based telephone may not always connect them to the emergency services.
The FCC released an order on June 3, requiring VoIP service providers to provide 911 capabilities to their subscribers no later than 120 days from the effective date of the order. Additionally, all providers of VoIP services were required by July 29 to specifically advise every subscriber of the circumstances under which the 911 service may not be available through the VoIP service. They were also instructed to obtain and keep a record of affirmative acknowledgement by every subscriber of having received and understood the advisory described and to distribute warning stickers to be placed on equipment used that may have an impaired 911 service.
Then on July 26, the FCC released a Public Notice stating that it would delay, until August 30, any enforcement action against any provider of VoIP services regarding the affirmative acknowledgement requirement, if the provider filed a report by August 10, detailing its progress toward satisfying the customer advisory.
The FCC further stated its expectation that VoIP providers would disconnect, by August 30, all subscribers from whom it had not received affirmative acknowledgements.
On August 10, the FCC reviewed numerous reports filed by VoIP providers. The reports demonstrated the significant efforts made by providers in complying with the affirmative acknowledgement requirement. As a result of its review of these reports, the FCC determined that it will not now initiate enforcement action, until September 28, 2005.
There are an estimated 2.5 million VoIP customers in the U.S. alone, meaning that even if 90% of them responded by the August deadline, some 250,000 would still lose their service.