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VoIP | Telecommunications | SkypeVOIP in Public-Safety Showdown
<<<... According to Murray, incumbent LECs have been reluctant to provide PSAP access to VOIP providers voluntarily. Lack of access to PSAPs contributed to the Texas incident and similar cases of people not being able to reach 911 operators, he said. "If we had had that access, we wouldn't have had these incidents," he said.
Some consumer advocates, who generally support 911 capabilities for VOIP, have also urged the FCC to link any VOIP 911 requirement to rules that force the incumbent telcos to cooperate. "We don't want to see a requirement on VOIP providers to do 911 but not require it to be implemented quickly by requiring the (local phone monopolies) to work with them," said Janee Briesemeister, senior policy analyst at Consumers Union.
Another question is whether the FCC's rules will apply to "nomadic" VOIP devices that consumers take with them to different locations or use as a mobile phone by connecting over a wireless network. By definition, such devices are more difficult to associate with a specific, fixed location. "What if you're in the Las Vegas airport and someone is trying to use that network to send a 911 call?" said Greg Murphy, chief operating officer of San Mateo, California-based AirWave, which provides wireless network management software.
Also unclear is whether the FCC's rules will touch peer-to-peer VOIP services such as Skype, which in its purest form doesn't touch the public-switched telephone network, or PSTN. A new flavor of Skype known as SkypeOut, however, does enable callers to reach people on the PSTN, which could put the company under the microscope. "If it's peer-to-peer, I think it's untouchable," said IDC's Stofega. "If it's touching the PSTN, that's a little different."