more on FCC VoIP 911 order

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Levine <johnl () taugh com>
Date: May 22, 2005 8:57:05 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on FCC VoIP 911 order


> Consider this implementation: the FCC mandates the following: every
> DHCP client sold must accept a new location identifier. ...

Technically, it could probably work well enough to be useful, since I
expect that most VoIP users who need E911 are plugged into consumer
broadband ISPs, and the stuff that SBC and Verizon are currently
doing with Vonage should be able to route the calls.

Politically, it'd be impossible.  The FCC has spent decades carefully
not regulating the ISP industry, and this would be not just
regulation, but a regulation that would cost a great deal of money to
implement.  Upgrading DHCP servers is easy.  Maintaining a database of
the physical location of each line in a form that is useful to E911 is
hard.  DSL carriers could probably do it since most of them are telcos
who already have E911 for the lines the DSL sits on top of, or for
naked DSL, the line the DSL used to sit on top of, but I'd think it'd
be all new for cablecos.  Until now, they haven't really needed to
know exactly where the IP customers are since the thing that
identifies the customer is the serial number of the cable modem, not
the physical wire.

I would guess that the FCC anticipates some sort of GPS thing similar
to what mobile phones are doing, and they may well decide to back off
when they discover that won't work.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl () taugh com, Taughannock Networks, Trumansburg NY
http://www.taugh.com



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