U.S. moves to fine wireless carriers over 911 service
13350
U.S. regulators said on Thursday  they had proposed penalizing three wireless carriers which the  government says failed to meet new stricter standards for being  able to locate cellular telephone callers in an emergency.
494604
Ring, Ring. Someone answer the computer. Voice-over-Internet Protocol got a boost today as The Federal Communications Commission ruled that providers of the service are exempt from some major state regulations
343460
In a move to fix one of the most significant shortcomings in emergency response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, New York has hired Northrop Grumman Corp. to build a wireless broadband public safety communications network to allow the city's emergency personnel to communicate in real time.
365085
The largest U.S. wireless service provider commits billions to network data speed upgrades.
254309
Wireless carriers look beyond home markets for new growth.
719626
(InfoWorld) - Intrado Inc., a vendor of emergency dialing technology, has conducted a successful trial of using E911 emergency dialing capabilities with mobile VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) phones, the company said. Intrado's trial in New York in August was aimed at solving one of the major problems with location-based E911, or enhanced 911, service with VoIP phones, said Stephen Meer, Intrado's chief technology officer. E911 relays the location of a caller to the emergency dispatch center, but many VoIP phones are not tied to one physical address -- users can connect the phones to any broadband network to make calls. The Intrado auto-locate trial used back-end 911 system technology from the company in combination with several location-finding technologies, Meer said. Included in the test were GPS (global positioning system) technology, a technology that triangulates high-definition television signals and one that surveys local Wi-Fi access points, he said. Combined with Intrado technology, the location-finding technologies were able to route VoIP 911 calls to emergency dispatch centers, using the dispatch equipment already installed, Meer said. No location-finding technology works in every situation -- GPS, for example, can have problems in densely packed tall buildings -- but a combination of location-finding technology can work, he said. "The real solution here is going to be a bundling of technologies," Meer said. Many large VoIP providers have been slow to provide E911 service to all their customers, with the mobility of VoIP phones being one of the problems. Because VoIP services route 911 calls through IP networks instead of the traditional telephone network, some VoIP phones have phone numbers that can follow the phone wherever it's plugged in. The Intrado test shows this problem has solutions, Meer said, although none of the newer location-finding technologies works as well as a traditional wireline phone tied to one address. The Intrado trial generally provided dispatchers with locations based on latitude and longitude, similar to current wireless phone 911 calls, but not as useful as street addresses, he said. Although the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has required VoIP providers to offer E911 service, more public discussion is needed about how precise a location the E911 call should provide, Meer said. "If the national public policy turns out to be, 'We're sort of going to tell you within a mile or so where you are,' there are going to be no little girls calling for help when their mommy's fallen down the steps," Meer said. "We have to have some interesting discussions about what's the right level for public safety." The Intrado trial doesn't attack a second problem with VoIP phones and E911. Providers such as Vonage Holdings Corp. and AT&T Inc. have allowed customers to pick phone numbers not normally assigned to their local area. This "nomadic" service allows customers to choose a phone number that would not be a long-distance call to family or friends living half-way across the country, but the nonlocal phone numbers make it difficult to implement E911's location pinpointing feature, Vonage and other VoIP providers have said.
89044
US regulators will let utility companies send high-speed Internet signals through electrical outlets to residential and business clients.
21492
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel, look out! European companies with unfamiliar names to many Americans, now offer much cheaper and more convenient GSM cellular services to US residents traveling abroad.
588090
NEW YORK - You could almost hear the sighs of relief when the US Federal Communications Commission ruled on Tuesday that Internet-based phone services should be regulated by the federal government, not by the states.
155325
There were six major wireless carriers in the US at the beginning of 2004. As the year comes to a close, itâs clear there will be only four.
364851
In October, most major cellphone carriers plan to start compiling a publicly accessible listing of wireless phone numbers.
283266
Verizon Wireless is bringing its fastest broadband wireless data service -- with triple the capacity its rivals offer -- to metropolitan Boston and the Providence, Hartford, and New Haven areas, beginning today.
583346
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has ruled that incumbent local exchange carriers must connect to VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services, overruling two state public service commission opinions.
22983
FCC clears the way for more companies to offer the alternative form of Net access.
651133
Internet telephone services on  Tuesday were insulated from many state regulations by U.S.  communications officials, a boon for upstart Vonage Holdings  Corp. and others aggressively pushing the new service.
352213
Federal regulators Tuesday declared authority over the states in governing Internet phone services, a move providers called crucial to fostering growth, innovation and competitive pricing in the budding industry.
19048
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) changed its rules on Friday in hopes of promoting wider broadband access throughout the nation by offering the service over power lines.