German VoIP provider Sipgate will offer emergency calling from Ge...

German VoIP provider Sipgate will offer emergency calling from Germany, to 110 for Germany and to 112 elsewhere in Europe, the company announced Fri. at the CeBIT. Authorities consider lack of 911-like emergency calls one of VoIP’s major problems . Sipgate said tests of the system, based on a cooperation with the network of Deutsche Telekom, were nearly complete and the company would offer the function in the coming month. Sipgate would be the first network-independent VoIP provider to make the offer. For nomadic VoIP users, said CEO Thilo Salmon, the company also was working on a solution, but was relying heavily on public authorities: “We could route emergency calls of nomadic customers to a central number; that could help anybody still able to speak.” But in Germany there’s no central number yet. Sipgate also announced several deals with hardware providers. Sipgate VoIP accounts, for example, will be preinstalled on several Siemens devices. The company also will offer a