Vonage Selects TCS For VoIP E911 Service

Brad Knowles brad at stop.mail-abuse.org
Wed Jul 20 11:27:24 UTC 2005


At 12:34 PM +0200 2005-07-20, Andre Oppermann wrote:

>                                                                  So
>  my guess is that the real drivers are the law enforcement agencies
>  wanting to get better tracking abilities. Whether they get out of
>  deal what they are hoping for remains to be seen.  Not that they will
>  tell us anyway.

	Actually, the FBI has been at least somewhat open with their 
disappointment of carrier support for position-enhanced information 
and compliance with CALEA.  I've seen recent articles in the press 
that has made this obvious.  It seems that the problem is that too 
many people are holding onto their old phones, and the networks which 
selected GPS as their solution aren't getting enough uptake fast 
enough on the new position-enhanced models.

	Contrary to my previous post, Nextel appears to be one of the 
carriers that selected GPS, and Verizon and Sprint appear to have 
done the same.  AT&T, Cingular, and T-Mobile appear to have gone the 
tower triangulation route.

	But as far as E911 is concerned, the problem appears that many of 
the emergency services providers still aren't equipped with the 
necessary equipment -- the article at <http://tinyurl.com/dmzdq> is a 
little old, but the situation was so bad at the time that I can't 
imagine the entire world has been turned around since.


	The whole CALEA/E911 issue was known a long time back.  Even 
_Wired_ picked up on it in early 1998, in the article at 
<http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,9502,00.html>, or 
<http://www.danbrown.com/secrets/digital_fortress/cell_phones.html>. 
And the interaction between VOIP, E911, and CALEA is still getting 
some traction (see 
<http://www.vonmag.com/issue/2005/jul/features/you_will_conform.htm>).

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.



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