The new rule for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers
came into force on Monday. It affects businesses such as BT, Vonage
and Skype that offer services that connect VoIP calls to the public
telephone network.
Operators must now provide the ability to make calls to 999, the
emergency number used in the UK, and 112, the number most used in
other EU countries. Ofcom previously told operators to place
stickers on equipment or on-screen labels indicating whether or not
emergency calls were possible over a service.
The rule, known as General Condition 4 of the General Conditions
of Entitlement, also provides that the network operator must
provide Caller Location Information for calls to the emergency call
numbers "to the extent that is technically feasible".
Ofcom said that 'technically feasible' should be taken to mean
that location information must be provided where the VoIP service
is being used at a predominantly fixed location.
In May, a child died in Calgary, Canada after an ambulance was
dispatched to the wrong address in response to an emergency call
placed by his parents using a VoIP phone. The ambulance had been
dispatched to an address in Ontario, 2,500 miles away.
The requirements already apply to fixed line and mobile
communications providers but the VoIP industry had resisted their
extension. In December last year, Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition
Europe was set up as a lobby group to influence the regulation of
internet telephony.
The group, which includes Google, Microsoft and Skype among its
founding members, warned against the “premature application” of
emergency call rules to VoIP services that are not a replacement
for traditional home or business phone services".
The VON Coalition said the move "could actually harm public
safety, stifle innovations critical to people with disabilities,
stall competition, and limit access to innovative and evolving
communication options where there is no expectation of placing a
112 call."
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