Re: VoIP operators given 120-day deadline to implement E911 services

[Nathan Allen Stratton <nathan () robotics net>]

On Thu, 19 May 2005, Jason Frisvold wrote:

> On 5/19/05, Bruce Pinsky <bep () whack org> wrote:
> > That last part ought to be interesting to try and implement in 120 days:
> >
> > "...must provide the emergency operator with the customer's callback number
> > and location, regardless of whether the call is being made from the
> > customer's home or elsewhere."
>
> I'm not sure how VoIP operators are going to accomplish this..  The
> ugly method would be requiring the user to put in their location
> information when the VoIP device first goes online, but I'm not sure
> that's even remotely practical...

Well there are ways to get close, one can have systems that let users
register locations and then back end systems that notice when the user
changes location. It can get complex, but frankly any good VoIP provider
needs to do some of this anyway to make sure users get routed to the best
outbound proxy.

> I know you can sometimes get generalized location information from an
> IP, but nowhere near what's needed for 911 operations..

True, user still needs to enter some information that needs to be
correlated against MSAG. That part often is harder then the rest because
MSAG is different county to county.

> Any insight on how this is going to be handled?
>
> > So what's the local 911 center I should be routed to when I'm at the Cebu
> > Phillipines airport and making a VoIP call?
>
> Where should I be routed when I'm making a VoIP call while wardriving?

Well for voice quality you will be routed to the best outbound proxy for
your current location and that recalculates that all the time. One way we
do this at least is with:

http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-mmusic-media-loopback-00.txt

However, 911 for you and for people with WiSIP devices still is a big
problem.


> <>
Nathan Stratton                                   BroadVoice, Inc.
nathan at robotics.net                                 Talk IS Cheap
http://www.robotics.net                           http://www.broadvoice.com