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This article, written by John Edwards, originally appeared in the FierceVoIP newsletter, Dec 2, 2005. FierceVoIP is a bi-weekly email service covering business and technology developments in voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).
Waiting for the Next Shoe to
Drop
MetaSwitch's Andy Randall looks at the next E911
challenges facing VoIP providers and vendors.
Now that the FCC's E911 deadline has passed, VoIP industry players are wondering how long it will take before the FCC issues additional emergency calling mandates. FierceVoIP editor John Edwards talked about this issue with MetaSwitch's Andy Randall, who believes that providers and vendors need to plan for the future today.
Q: So now that the FCC's deadline has passed, what's your take on the E911 situation facing VoIP providers?
A: I think the first thing to note is the progress that has been made over the last few months. The VoIP providers have really taken note of what the FCC [has] laid down and, they've made pretty good strides getting toward where they need to be.
If you look at the long-term goal of where we need to be, there's still a couple of major issues facing the VoIP industry. The first is just a truly seamless national IP-based 911 infrastructure, because a lot of what has been done today is still based on TDM interconnection and specific point agreements between providers and PSAPs. We've got companies like Intrado and TCS that are rushing to put together a national infrastructure but they're not quite there yet. And when they do, then that will really address that issue.
The other, more long-term technology solution, is automatically identifying [the] location of subscribers. Because... you addressed the situation where people have a fixed line VoIP. But if someone moves their location, they still have to go to a Web site and inform the provider. And if they're on a mobile VoIP client, then there's just no way of identifying the location.
You've got a couple of things here with things like WiMax coming into the picture and metropolitan WiFi meshes. Then you're going to start getting more wireless VoIP. So then you're going to have exactly the same challenges as the cell phone 911 had.
Q: Do you see the FCC coming down with additional 911 mandates in the future to address those issues?
A: Yes. I think they've made (it) very clear that this is just the first step. I mean, they're not really addressing nomadic VoIP yet. And I think the industry is definitely moving to understand how we can address that issue. I think it will inevitably come down to an industry-wide effort. There will have to be intelligence in edge routers to include location information in IP headers, or however it's thought through. But somehow you're going to have to have some sort of geographic knowledge within the network.
Q: How badly do these FCC mandates affect VoIP providers' pricing advantage over traditional telephony?
A: The initial take up of VoIP was very much an arbitrage play where the VoIP providers were taking advantage of the lack of regulation. So this certainly chips away at that. There are still several advantages that the VoIP providers have from a regulatory point of view, but I think ultimately the promise of VoIP is not about one or two little regulatory charges. It's much more about the network efficiencies that come about the menu services that will get delivered. In the big picture, I don't think it will make much of a dent in the adoption to IP based services.
Q: A lot of providers were caught unaware of the FCC's current action. If I were a VoIP provider, what could I do today to prepare my company for upcoming FCC 911 mandates?
A: It's a good question because a lot of these decisions, both CALEA and E911, have taken a lot of providers by surprise.
I think the ones that were in the worst situation, the ones that were really stuck, were those who had deployed on enterprise grade equipment where the vendors they were working with really were not coming from a carrier perspective. So the vendors were not in a position to turn around and help them meet the requirements. So I think that's probably the number one lesson: If you take shortcuts in how you build your network, it will probably come back and bite you at some point.
The other thing is just to make sure you have an ongoing dialog with your vendors and understand how they are working on the future development in terms of 911 in particular, and with CALEA as well. Those are the two key regulatory areas.
Q: What can vendors do to prepare for the next round of FCC mandates? What technologies should they be working on?
A: I think the key thing is that they need to take as open an approach they can to building their products. If you look, for example, at a lot of the national 911 calling type of infrastructure, a lot of that is going to be built on SIP. So if they're not supporting standards, then they're probably not going to be able to meet the technical requirements of the network that's going to emerge over the next few years.
I think, particularly longer term, if you look at IMS and the architecture that IMS brings, that solves some of the mobility issues. Because it's designed for [the] cellular world, it has a lot of that geographical knowledge already built in.