FCC To Require 911 for VoIP

Sun May 1 23:43:20 UTC 2005

On Sun, 1 May 2005, Chris Boyd wrote:
> > s/zipcode/unique geographic identifier on the rough order of a square
> > mile/
>
> Or have the server return the SNMP location information.  The network
> operator would then be able to configure locally meaningful
> information.

Why do you think the ISP knows anything more precise that the information
they already give in the IN-ADDR.ARPA name?  Let's encode the ZIP Code
in the router DNS name ... (well, someone had to suggest using DNS as
the universal database solution eventually).  And more importantly why
do you think it is actually useful enough to solve the problem?

If the location of the ISP's router was good enough to identify the
location of the user, the marketing people would have already solved the
problem.

For everyone who thinks they have discovered the final, universal solution
to any problem, they probably don't understand the entire problem.

If you actually want to solve the problem, you need to get at least 5 to
10 different databases/protocols/systems to inter-operate on a world-wide
level with an embedded base of hundreds of millions.  There are
years/decades of FCC/PUC rulings prohibiting those systems from
inter-operating.  And finally, who is going to pay for the changes.