outsourced e911

VOIP PROVIDERS WERE IN A STATE OF emergency in the wake of the recent FCC decision on 911. And outsourced E911 providers are answering the call.

On June 29, the publication of the final FCC order gave VoIP providers just 150 days to come up with systems that will meet enhanced 911 requirements, providing call-back and location information to public safety answering points (PSAP). The actual order by the FCC affirmed that the commission was sticking to that deadline and, further, has complicated the matter by refusing to exempt operators from liability (as it has done with mobile operators) and making no clear provisions for requesting temporary exemptions. Now, partway through the 150 days, it still is doubtful that service providers can meet the deadline.

While outsourced E911 services have been in existence for 20 years, service providers such as HBF Group Inc., Intrado Inc., TeleCommunication Systems Inc. (TCS) and others have launched new services in recent months that provide outsourced 911 connectivity of various kinds for mobile and VoIP service providers, who have many of the same issues because the services can move. These new services include new schemes for taking VoIP calls with call-back and location information — the critical requirements for E911 — to PSAPs.

One of the newer ideas is of an exchange service on the Internet that routes 911 calls to the correct PSAP along with the information about the caller. The VoIP service provider does not have to set up its own connectivity to the PSTN, as well as to the selective routers.

Intrado recently announced its VoIP 911 Peering Service. While the company’s V911 service for mobile operators provides caller location and routing information to the correct PSAP, the new peering service completes the system by providing access to the 911 network. Designed to be deployed in incumbent networks, the service will be sold to ILECs as a package of a VoIP gateway and management by Intrado.

Rather than putting a gateway at every one of the more than 8,000 PSAPs in the United States, gateways are installed at key points in the network that will give access to multiple PSAPs. These neutral 911 network access points can be used by any VoIP service provider. Once a call is on the ILEC network, routing data from Intrado will get a call to the correct PSAP. Intrado also may install and manage access points itself, as it plans to do in New York City.

The Intrado peering service links with the company’s V911 Mobility Service for mobile service providers. Because a VoIP phone service can be moved by the customer to various geographical locations, Intrado is using its mobile service to provide the data needed to route calls using the peering service. A service provider also has to establish a contract with Intrado for the mobile service.

This system establishes a record for each phone number in the Master Street Address Guide (MSAG), a database that includes automatic location identification and automatic telephone number identification data, plus detailed latitude and longitude data. When a call comes in from a phone number, that database is queried for the street location and the latitude and longitude, both of which are displayed on the screens at the PSAP. The PSAP uses that data to choose the emergency unit that will respond to the call. MSAG “is the baseline for 911,” says Marcus Andronici, product manager of VoIP solutions for Intrado.

Asked why an ILEC would go to the expense of using the Intrado system to open their networks to VoIP providers, given they are not yet required to do so, Andronici says, “We have seen interest from all of them about opening networks. ... ILECs could build gateways on their own to give access, but that is costly. Also, there is the question of management of security and of all the VoIP providers who want access to the network. ... We are going to put peering points into your network and give access to all VoIP providers operating in your area.”

HBF Group introduced its i911 service in June 2004 to provide a way to deliver location and call-back data to PSAPs instead of just voice. The service does this without having to access the advanced features of the 911 system.

A call is delivered to the PSAP in the traditional way, routed through selective routers. However, the call-back and location information are accessed via a Web site set up by HBF Group especially for PSAPs. The database contains a list of calls sent to each PSAP with a time stamp and the phone number. The phone number is used to look up the location information on the Web site.

The HBF system is complicated by the fact that many PSAPs do not have access to the Internet, because the system is not up-to-date in many areas. Also, Rob Smith, director of sales at HBF, says it is not clear if the system would be acceptable to the FCC under the most recent regulation. Still, it is used by a number of service providers, including Volo Communications Inc., a CLEC and VoIP service provider.

“HBF plans to introduce a peering type of service in the near future,” says Smith. In addition, the company is in talks with OnStar Corp., the automotive emergency service which also uses a Web site for PSAPs to look up data.

Another area of development is that vendors are including backup in their IP infrastructure so customers can continue to reach 911 services. CopperCom in its host-remote configuration — used by rural telcos to provide services to a wide area using just one softswitch — operates in a “standalone” mode and continues to offer access to E911, community calling, local emergency services and calling features if a network connection is lost to the host.