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Internet Phones, 911 Systems Could Clash

Feb 18, 11:53 AM (ET)

ST. PAUL (AP) - The rising popularity of Internet telephones could undermine the

finances of the state's 911 systems while endangering some users because the new

technology doesn't alway mesh with the old emergency system.

So-called Internet telephony's popularity worries Jim Beutelspacher, manager of

the statewide 911 program for the Department of Public Safety, because it

doesn't pay a 40-cent-per-month tax for each new subscriber.

Last fiscal year, a 33-cent 911 fee generated $20.8 million. The higher fee this

year is expected to bring in $25.4 million, mainly to pay for connections to

public safety call centers, Beutelspacher said.

But if more people drop their regular telephone service in favor of tax-free

Internet calling, the financial underpinnings of 911 will be weakened, he said.

The problems have been noted within the industry, but it's expected to become a

bigger issue as more people turn to Internet telephony because it can be cheaper

than regular telephone service.

The Federal Communications Commission last week kicked off a process to study

regulating Internet telephony. Meantime, federal authorities say states cannot

regulate or tax these growing services.

The Metropolitan 9-1-1 Board, created more than 20 years ago to help manage the

seven-county metro area's 911 system, said Tuesday that consumers may not be

aware of the shortcomings of Internet phone services, sometimes called

voice-over-Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

" It's buyer beware, " said Pete Eggimann, director of 911 services for the board.

Because Internet telephony connects regular phones to computers and requires

high-speed Internet access, it is vulnerable to power outages or interruptions

in broadband service.

Some Internet phone services offer a substitute form of 911 calling but they

often cannot provide a street address to 911 dispatchers in so-called enhanced

or e-911 service, Eggimann said.

Internet telephony also can confuse 911 systems because subscribers may use

out-of-state area codes to make long distance calls look like local calls. A St.

subscriber could have a New York City area code, for instance.

Internet telephony doesn't use special lines reserved for public safety call

centers, so it sometimes substitutes administrative lines that change numbers

without warning, Eggimann said.

The board cited an Internet 911 call that failed last November for Bye, a

New Brighton woman with Internet phone service by Vonage, the country's leading

voice-over-Internet Protocol provider with 100,000 subscribers nationwide and

about 500 in Minnesota.

Bye said she had to go to her neighbor's house to make a 911 call when her

husband was missing one night. He later was found unconscious, overcome by smoke

in the garage, where he sometimes puttered on projects at night.

The problem, Bye said, was that while she had signed up for Vonage's 911 service

initially, she didn't realize she had to re-apply once Vonage gave her their old

home phone number a few months later as she requested.

" I didn't read the fine print, " she said.

Vonage spokeswoman Schulz said that Vonage notifies all its customers

that its service does not automatically include 911, and that when they sign up

for Vonage's special 911 service, it won't work like 911 from a regular

telephone.

" We tell people that if you need e-911 service, you should keep your old phone

line or have some other way of accessing 911, such as with a cell phone, " Schulz

said.

Schulz said that Qwest Communications International is blocking Vonage from

access to the databases and special routers that would give it direct access to

the state's 911 system, but Qwest denied the accusation.

The increasing popularity of Internet phone services has prompted large phone

companies such as Qwest and AT & T, as well as cable companies such as Comcast and

Time-Warner to start their own Internet telephone services. Qwest began offering

a 911-less voice-over-Internet service in Minnesota in December and plans to

expand it to the rest of its 14 states with basic 911 service later this year,

spokeswoman Cyndi Barrington said.

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