Senate Commerce Committee approves emergency 911 bill

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A Senate bill requiring internet telephone companies to provide location-specific 911 responses has been approved. The panel voted to extend the FCC deadline from Nov. 28 to four years from now.

Original source:
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-QQJQ1130971728555.html

Summary:

• The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation requiring Internet telephone companies to provide location-specific emergency 911 responses.
• But the panel also voted to roll back a looming FCC deadline -- while granting firms four years to implement the technology.
• Voice over Internet Protocol -- VoIP -- companies currently face a November deadline to provide "enhanced," or location-based, 911 response to customers.
• The legislation, S. 1063, would waive that deadline and require revised FCC rules within 120 days of the bill's enactment.
• The bill also grants Internet telephony providers a special waiver of E-911 rules for up to four years.
• Under the text of the bill, the FCC "shall waive the 911 and E-911 requirements" if the VoIP provider meets a three-part test.
• Subscribers would have to separately acknowledge receipt of such warnings, and the companies must demonstrate "that it is not technically or operationally feasible" to comply with the FCC rules.
• Many VoIP providers criticized a May FCC order requiring nationwide compliance with E-911 services by Nov. 28.
• The public safety sector already has immunity when they take such calls from landline or wireless carriers.
• John Sununu, R-N.H., led the effort in the committee on behalf of VoIP providers concerned about the FCC order.
• He pushed for a permanent exemption of the FCC order for those VoIP providers, such as Vonage, offering "nomadic" service.
• The start of the committee session was delayed for more than 30 minutes as Stevens, Inouye, Sununu, Burns and their aides huddled at the dais and argued about how long a waiver authority should be granted.
• The committee's action came a day after Nuvio, an Internet telephone provider, filed an emergency request in federal appeals court for a partial stay of the FCC order requiring E-911 service for VoIP customers by Nov. 28.

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