Despite VoIP providers’ concerns over meeting the 120-day deadline to comply with E911 rules issued earlier this month, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin backed the commission’s ruling – one of the first to come from the agency since Martin landed the job as head of the nation’s telecommunications regulatory body in March – in comments at the industry’s largest convention today.
“One of the things I saw quickly after becoming chairman was the real impact that this change to VoIP was having on real people in the sense of having access to emergency operators and the high expectation people have that when they pick up the phone they can get a hold of the local fire department, the local police station. It was creating life-threatening problems for consumers. It was paramount for the government to try to address that issue right away,” Martin said in response to a query from Walter B. McCormick, president and CEO of USTA, co-sponsor of SUPERCOMM. McCormick and Matthew Flanigan, President of TIA, SUPERCOMM co-sponsor, moderated the discussion with the chairman.
“In the long run that’s going to be important for the technologies as they develop as well to demonstrate that they can also provide that basic 911 capabilities consumers except,” he added.
When asked whether the FCC mandate would give consumers even greater false assurance that VoIP services are 911-enabled when it is unlikely they will be so in time for the October deadline, Martin told reporters all VoIP providers are connecting to the PSTN must comply with the order. “If they want to be marketing their services as being connected to the public switched telephone network and as a potential substitute for traditional wireline services, they are going to have to find a way to provide 911 as basic component,” he said.
Should legislation pending in Congress absolve providers of the obligation by providing clear disclaimers, Martin said the agency would enforce such rules, however.
