The National Emergency Number Agency (NENA) generally supports the House bill, which would make it easier for VoIP providers to provide voice competition to incumbent telephone carriers, said Patrick Halley, NENA’s government affairs director.

Under the House bill, a VoIP provider could market and gain new customers in areas where it did not have a 911 solution—something the FCC rules issued a year ago prohibit—if it used a national call center to route calls. However, the bill would require the VoIP provider to order connectivity to a selective router within 30 days of gaining its first new customer and provide direct E-911 service within 180 days to continue getting new subscribers in a given area, Halley said.

“It doesn’t let them out of their responsibilities at all,” he said. “It just changes the timeline in those areas.”

Opposing the provision is the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), which does not believe VoIP providers should be able to market service without connecting directly into the 911 network, said Robert Gurss, APCO’s director of legal and government affairs.

“We don’t think the call centers are an adequate substitute … because you’re adding delay to that process and potential for human error into that process,” he said. “The call gets answered, but it gets answered by a person in some central location, and you’re depending on that person telling what jurisdiction you’re in and then routing that call to the proper PSAP.

“It multiplies many times the potential for the call to not get through in any kind of a useful matter.”

Gurss also said APCO is concerned with a provision in the bill that would prohibit the FCC from requiring VoIP providers to meet 911 mandates that are not “technically and operationally feasible.”

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