The most (politically) compelling argument the phone companies have against Voice Over IP is 911 service.
The heart of 911 is that your phone number travels with your call, so emergency services can reach you even if you hang up.
Thus, the phone companies are forcing E911 capability onto mobile companies, subsidizing the (welcome) addition of GPS, and to Voice Over IP, which forces companies like Vonage to beg for access to Bell trunks, which can then be denied bureaucratically, killing the competition.
But here is the one argument for VOIP that the Bells cannot answer, which destroys E911 entirely.
It’s primitive.
- The victim has to make the call first. It is not pro-active.
- The emergency services are dependent on that voice line, which only delivers voice, in order to know what is going on.
- The emergency services are also dependent on the phone network.
This last is a very important point. After Katrina, wireless Internet services were brought online quickly while those stuck with phone lines literally drowned. Right now, in fact, New Orleans is practically covered in WiFi service while the phone network has yet to return to normal.
BellSouth is trying to turn this municipal-sponsored service off, but the fact is that WiFi is cheaper to install, more powerful, and in the end more reliable than wired telephony.
Now for the trump card:
If you think about Internet broadband connectivity rather than just PSTN, you can deliver pro-active services in place of 911, services that are much better than 911, always-on services that live in the wireless network.
We’re talking about Always-On security and medical applications such as:
- Monitoring services.
- Voice-activated video.
- Sensors on patients.
Instead of waiting for a sick or victimized person to call, 911 services with broadband (connected to wireless) can be monitoring the crime scene as the crime takes place, while ambulances can be monitoring patient conditions as they race to the scene. Always-On medical solutions can send the ambulance before a call would be made.
The whole E911 argument is old technology’s attempt to squelch the new. And it needs to be resisted. I think New Orleans can be the first successful fight in that effort. I hope it is.
