| Bells will not charge much if anything for 911 Both Verizon and SBC are rolling out VoIP as part of their big IP offerings -- access to Internet via DSL, TV via IP, wireless hooked into IP. If big charges for 911 were mandated, then Verizon and SBC would have to charge each other, and neither would want to do that, given the massive number of VoIP customers they expect to have. If they agreed to waive charges for each other, that would be anticompetitive and would be stopped by the FTC, DoJ, and courts. If the two allowed reciprocal access to 91l, but shut out independent providers of VoIP, that, too, would be anticompetitive and disallowed.
What is needed is a system for locating VoIPers when they are telephoning away from their home base (which would be required information during set-up). One easy solution would be to require entering the ZIP code of the calling place away from home, with special codes for airplanes, trains, buses, and similar. |
