A decent summary of the state of affairs for E911 infrastructure access by VoIP providers. The FCC was right to put this burden on the providers of VoIP services. The author shows a bit of bias toward the small VoIP players:
The FCC requires the Baby Bells to grant 911 system access to direct landline competitors--companies such as Global Crossing or Level 3, for example--but does not require the Baby Bells to offer similar access to VoIP providers; nor does it put any limits on what they can charge for such access. So essentially, the FCC is making demands on the VoIP companies to get their E911 act together, but isn't giving them any assistance. Consequently, complying with the FCC's ruling is likely to be a huge financial undertaking for any VoIP company, and it's possible that some of the smaller providers will disappear--or services that are in development now may not see the light of day.
In the end this problem will be fixed as well it should. The next tough issue will be loss of phone service and E911 access when the power goes out. Consumers beware.
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