Skype is trying to get an exemption from the newly mandated FCC e911 rules. If you think about it, how would Skype provide accurate e911 since it is a nomadic VoIP service? Many Skype users use Skype in their home, their office, on the road in hotels, etc. So how would Skype be able to detect where you are at any given time? The only thing they can do is figure out your IP address - which at best only gives you a geographic region - not enough location information to send to the local emergency response team. The text within the current FCC rules "places obligations on interconnected VoIP service providers that are similar to traditional telephone providers in that they enable customers to receive calls from and terminate calls to the public switched telephone network (PSTN)." In order words, it mandates that any VoIP service provider providing PSTN access must provide e911 access, including Skype. Russell Shaw has some interesting comments on both Skype & AT&T fighting the e911 rules you should check out..
Also, EnterpriseVoIPplanet has an excellent summary of Skype & e911:
"Skype is concerned that overbroad application of 911/e911 requirements will impede rather than facilitate the provision of emergency services," Skype's letter states. "Skype does not have access to reliable real-time location information for its users—Skype may determine a user's IP address, but IP addresses (in addition to being vulnerable to spoofing) offer only the most general sense of a user's location. "
Perhaps as part of the Skype login process the Skype software client can require the user to provide their current location. While this would add an extra step to the login process, it would eliminate liability from Skype by putting the onus on the customer to enter in that information. If Skype users hate this extra login step (which I am sure they will), maybe Skype could offer a check box that remembers the last location and uses that by default. So only the first time login requires that information and then it is remembered. If users change their location and forget to update that information and then dial 911 from another location, well, then that's their own fault.
Of course, everyone will probably check the box to remember the location and then complain to the FCC that Skype should automatically provide e911 without manually updating. Someone will die as a result of a user not updating their location and they will sue Skype causing Skype millions in legal fees. Of course, the FCC order as it stands now does not require "automatic" updating of e911 information - it states, "Finally, the Commission stated its intention to adopt, in a future order, an advanced E911 solution that includes a method for determining the customer’s location without the customer having to self report this information."
So Skype is at least "shielded" from having to automatically (and magically) figure out a person's location via their IP address - for now... But according to the FCC's own words, that will change in a future order. How Skype and other 'nomadic' VoIP providers will magically figure out a person's location only knowing the IP address is beyond me. The FCC just does not get technology in my opinion. They will have to provide some exemptions or they will kill nomadic VoIP, which is one of its most powerful and attractive features.
Thoughts? Opinions? Post a comment.
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Hey Tom, you are right on. You get penalized for having innovative technology. Nothing more to add.
Very simple, make WiFi phones with built-in GPS, then transmit the GPS coordinates when a 911 call is made.
To prevent abuse, you can further burn an IMEI into the handset just like all GSM phones have and transmit that, too.
What about maybe something like having the user input their location whenever they logon onto skype from a computer? So when they open skype it will require the user to enter their current address. They cannot place a phone call if they havent provided skype with an address. Skype could just remember the settings so you dont have to enter it everytime. You could maybe tie that in with their I.P. address compare it to the the address they provided to see if it makes sense. The responisbility would fall to the user to make sure they provide an address.
>>What about maybe something like having the user input their location whenever they logon onto skype from a computer? So when they open skype it will require the user to enter their current address.
Didn't I say that as a possible solution in my blog post?
>>The responisbility would fall to the user to make sure they provide an address.
Yep, said that too (i.e. "If users change their location and forget to update that information and then dial 911 from another location, well, then that's their own fault.").
I must be hearing the echo of my typing. ; )
It would be as simple as your ISP being able to release your physical address to an emergency service. They could be contacted with your IP and easily relay your address to emergency services. Now, doing this would also require subscribers to give their actual physical address to their ISPs and it would require ISPs to keep both a mailing address and a physical address on file. As far as punching in an IP and getting the customer information to which it is currently assigned, that's something they do for the FBI/RIAA on a daily basis.
What's the FCC not 'getting'? If you ask me, they get technology better than the VoIP people, because there are several technical solutions to the problem, some of which would only require some administrative changes at ISPs.
If anything, the FCC is trying to make VOIP work for a wider audience. Not everyone is young and healthy and can risk not getting fast enough 911 response time. Older people, people with kids, people who are sick, and dozens of other reasons all call for reliable, fast 911 service. Why should that one issue prevent people from using a cool technology just because lazy technologists don't want to go the last mile in making the technology complete?