Early on in the VoIP industry, there were issues with 911 calling. With no hard fixed location to trace, 911 callers would have to explain exactly where they were in order for any emergency personnel to be able to find them. This was a pretty unfortunate con to voice over internet protocol phone service.
Fortunately, there have been several improvements made to correct this problem. E911 has made it possible to make effective 911 to be made and tracked. Unfortunately, there are many places that still do not have E911 capabilities meaning there are still several places that are vulnerable when it comes to calling emergency services.
Last week, President Bush signed a bill into law that calls for all VoIP companies to offer service that has the same 911 capabilities as regular phone service. This will make VoIP 911 equal to regular 911 in it’s ability an reliability. With a service that is slowing replacing traditional telephone, it is important to ensure that it is as safe as possible.
Perhaps the next big problem to solve will be the power loss issue. There are already VoIP backup batteries, but something will have to be done for all VoIP customers sooner or later.
