istock/Alex Slobodkin

According to a citation issued Oct. 27 by the Federal Communications Commission, Vantage Communications has been failing to provide fully compliant 9-1-1 service, violating 47 C.F.R. §9.5(b).

A complaint was lodged with the Commission on Nov. 30, 2007, alleging that Vantage, an interconnected VoIP service provider was not routing all 9-1-1 calls to the appropriate PSAP. In fact, an investigations revealed that Vantage had entered into waiver agreements not to provide 9-1-1 service to three different companies. A misdirected 9-1-1 call placed from the premises of one of those companies was the impetus for the complaint.

According to the citation, Vantage was using language in paragraph 48 of the VoIP 9-1-1 order to permit subscribers to opt out of 9-1-1 service. “‘Vantage states that, based on its understanding of the language of the E911 Order which required VoIP service providers to “specifically advise every subscriber, both new and existing, prominently and in plain language, of the circumstances under which E911 service may not be available through the interconnected VoIP service or may be in some way limited by comparison to traditional E911 service,’ it ‘viewed a formal notice and acknowledgement of the lack of 911 service to this customer to be an appropriate method in which to encourage the customer to communicate properly with all users, as well as to document the notification of same.’”

The FCC response: “To interpret the quoted language of paragraph 48 to permit subscribers to opt-out of 911 service would be directly contradictory to the Commission’s finding in paragraph 47 of the same Order, that “allowing customers of interconnected VoIP providers to opt-in to or, for that matter, opt-out of E911 service is fundamentally inconsistent with our obligation to ‘encourage and support efforts by states to deploy comprehensive end-to-end emergency communications infrastructure and programs. Thus, interconnected VoIP providers must, as a condition of providing that service to a consumer, provide that consumer with E911 service as outlined.”

Further, the FCC states that interconnected VoIP providers must make E9-1-1 an included feature of their service, not an option.

If, after receipt of this citation, Vantage violates the Communications Act or the Commission’s rules, the FCC may impose “monetary forfeitures not to exceed $16,000 for each such violation or each day of a continuing violation up to $112,500 for a single continuing violation.”

About the Author

Keri Losavio is the editor of APCO’s Public Safety Communications. Contact her at psceditor@apcointl.org.