FCC’s VoIP E911 Order is out! Mark your Calendars!!

If you are a VOIP provider in/to US customers, Mark 2005 July 28, and 29th in really big red circle.
FCC (Federal Communication Commission)’s June 3 enhanced 911 order,which requires VoIP providers to supply E911 services to all of their customers, was published in the Federal Register today.
There is another related document here

Nov. 28 Zero Hour

According to the statement, VoIP providers must be in full compliance with the E911 order by Nov. 28.



July 29 Notice and Record Requirements

According to the statement, VoIP providers must, by July 29, accomplish the following:

• Provide all customers with a letter describing the circumstances under which E911 service may not be available;

• Provide subscribers with warning stickers or labels noting that E911 service may have limitations;

• Begin maintaining records of affirmative acknowledgements from subscribers indicating that they have received and understood the letter describing E911 limitations.

Read the Federal register's full statement through the abve link.

E-911 Location Awareness Program

After FCC issued the requirements of E-911 services for VOIP service providers, One company seems to be expanding it's own services. Level 3 which already has e-911 in the making and providing most of the us market under it's umbrella, promisses to cover 70% of the USA by the end of 2005.

VOIP News

Viper networks announced today that it has completed testing and will begin marketing a new version of its Wi-Fi enabled phone that operates on its global VoIP network.
Fonality, the leader in affordable IP-PBX systems for small businesses, today announced PBXtra, an IP-PBX that delivers enterprise-class capabilities to small businesses for up to 80 percent less than the cost of traditional PBX systems. PBXtra is currently deployed to thousands of business users and is distributed by more than 300 Fonality resellers in 40 countries. Its technology is based on Linux and Asterisk open source technology.

gridtech

Another update to Grid's, I just passed 40000 points mark! But still a long way to go before I can get in to the top user list.

follow the link

Will 911 requirements harm small VOIP Providers?

It seems that the cost of enabling 911 services will be the fall of the small guys. It is rather expensive right now to provide 911 services. My thoughts on that is; It is time to regroup. Individually one might not be able to afford the 911 services. But what if all or some of them band together? consortium could be able to pay the price via a membership fee. Also avenues like pushing the equipment vendor or the termination servie provider to furnish the requirements might keep the small guy above the water

Open Vs. Proprietary

VOIP like any other thing is bringing a war, Open Vs. Proprietary.
Next week at Supercomm one will be able to see more of these stuff but according to

Silicon Valley is fast moving into the world of telephony, and it is dragging the contest between open and proprietary code along with it.

Next week at Supercomm, the annual telephony conference and expo in Chicago, IT will show a higher profile than ever before. Standards advocates will champion open architecture as a way for carriers to reduce network operating costs and complexity, while proprietary software makers will tout ease of use.

Sun Microsystems Inc. will promote its IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) strategy, which is designed to help service providers deliver traditional voice services less expensively over an IP platform. Java not only can help reduce networking costs but also can speed the creation of new services, said David Orain, director of telecom strategy at Sun, in Santa Clara, Calif.Sun will launch the Open Service Delivery Platform Solutions Program, which will bring together partners to develop IP-based applications. The program will generate a catalog of applications with open interfaces, making it easy for carriers to integrate new services rapidly, Orain said.

Telephone companies are steadily becoming more serious about open-source systems, said Mark Spencer, president of Digium Inc., in Huntsville, Ala. Digium, the creator of Asterisk, an open-source PBX, as well as gateways, media servers and application servers, this week will roll out an echo cancellation card that allows for some processing to be offloaded.

read more here.