Victims of 911 Glitches, Safety Officers Expected to Attend FCC VoIP Meeting
As the FCC votes today (Thurs.) on E-911 requirements for VoIP providers, at least one victim of an E-911 malfunction involving a VoIP phone, and possibly more, will be sitting in the audience. Also expected are top public safety officials from several states. Several industry observers speculated that the appearances were orchestrated by the FCC, but agency officials wouldn’t comment.
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Cheryl Waller, a Fla. mother whose baby died after a 911 call from her VoIP phone went to an unmanned number, will attend the agenda meeting to support an agency plan to require VoIP providers to connect 911 callers to emergency operators, her attorney said Wed. It wasn’t clear if Waller, who has become an active campaigner for 911 reform, was invited to attend the meeting or was coming on her own. Waller’s attorney Michael Smith said he wasn’t certain of the arrangements with the FCC, but he would be accompanying Waller, who wasn’t available.
An industry source said another possible attendee is Joyce John, whose parents were shot while she tried unsuccessfully to call 911 during a Houston home invasion in March. Her parents survived but her experience is the basis for a suit filed by the Tex. attorney gen. Also expected to attend the FCC meeting are Houston and N.Y.C. public safety officials.
Waller’s 3-month-old daughter Julia died in March after Waller was unable to contact a 911 dispatcher using a Vonage VoIP phone. In one of several highly-publicized cases this year, Waller and her husband Joseph blamed Vonage for not making it clear that dialing 911 on their service connecting the caller with a non-emergency phone number. Waller’s 911 call connected her to a phone with a recorded message telling her to hang up and dial 911.
The Wallers, who live in Deltona, Fla., plan to file suit against Vonage, said Smith. Smith said he’s now gathering documents and other information needed in Fla. before a suit can be filed. The Wallers also established a web site -- www.911petition.com -- to gain signatures on a petition that asks Congress to pass a bill requiring VoIP providers to connect 911 callers directly to emergency dispatch operators -- action similar to what the FCC is expected to do today. The Wallers have collected more than 200 signatures to the petition, plus promises from 150 more to send letters to their congressional representatives, according to the web site.
Waller’s Vonage service contract explained that 911 calls might go to non-emergency numbers, but Waller told reporters the warning should have been more prominently displayed in the contract language. In a May 16 interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Waller said she called Vonage the day after the incident and the person answering the phone “laughed and said they could not revive a baby.”
The FCC is expected to issue an order requiring VoIP providers to offer full E-911 capability in 120 days, meaning calls would go to emergency dispatchers directly, with information about the caller’s location included. The FCC requirements are expected to include service to fixed VoIP phones as well as to “nomadic” phones in which users call from more than one location and “non-native” phones that have area codes that don’t apply to the locations where the phones are located. There’s a possibility the FCC will place requirements on ILECs to share with VoIP providers the infrastructure used to transport VoIP calls. Although Chmn. Martin hadn’t included such language in his proposal, one source said it’s possible it could get added to assure he had enough votes.