Vonage took another swipe at SBC for not cooperating in its plan ...
Vonage took another swipe at SBC for not cooperating in its plan to test VoIP-based E-911 service, telling FCC staff members in an April 6 meeting SBC is providing 911 access service to its own affiliate but not to…
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Vonage. In an April 7 ex parte filing describing the meeting, Vonage said it is concerned “about the nature of any practice that would permit an incumbent provider to offer [911] access to its affiliate on a confidential and non-tariffed basis while restricting customers of other VoIP services from receiving the same level of access.” An SBC spokesman said “the 911 offering available to our affiliate is available to Vonage or any other VoIP provider under the same terms and conditions.” The affiliate buys SBC’s TipTop interconnection service for its VoIP offering and with that service gets access to the 911 offering, he said, adding that Vonage could do the same. In the ex parte filing, Vonage encouraged the FCC to issue a public statement on a related topic -- public access to administrative numbers used by PSAPs: “These numbers serve an important public safety function. The FCC should issue rules in the context of its IP Enabled rulemaking that prohibit PSAPs from intentionally disrupting or interfering with the ability of persons, irrespective of the communications method they may choose, from accessing these critical numbers.” Vonage said its testing program has gained “significant cooperation” from PSAPs in Wash., Tex. and N.Y. Despite a successful trial in King County, Wash., “Qwest has expressed an unwillingness to deploy the solution more widely,” Vonage said.