Federal regulators recently made a decision regarding fully functional 911 services and voted that all VoIP services must provide this feature in an enhanced manner. On a landline phone, you can dial 911 and your call be transferred to the emergency line with your phone number and address for immediate response. However, that’s not the case with VoIP services. While VoIP service providers do have 911 functionality, the caller’s phone number and the address are not displayed on the operator’s screen, which delays the emergency response time.

In one case, a Florida woman said she called 911 after her daughter stopped breathing but she heard a recording and had to use the neighbor’s phone to call for emergency personnel. By the time help arrived, her daughter had already passed away. According to various reports, there are numerous such cases regarding VoIP services and their 911 features.

"This situation is simply unacceptable," said Kevin Martin, Chairman.

The vote results for the regulation were 4-0, and it’s now required that all VoIP service providers must enhance their networks to display the caller’s phone number, the address and correct rerouting of emergency lines by fall of this year.

VoIP service operators, in their defense, said that regular phone companies, such as Bellsouth, are not willing to share their network databases. Although FCC is not forcing its decision on Bell companies, reports said four major companies including Verizon, SBC, Qwest and Bellsouth have either worked or are working out the final details with Vonage and others regarding these situations.

A house bill is also passed after the decision that forces local phone companies to disclose their information database to VoIP service providers for reasonable fees.