Voice over IP phone company Vonage is being sued by the
Texas attorney general for allegedly failing to warn users that an
emergency 911 service was not automatically included in
subscriptions.
The action has been brought after a Texas woman failed to get
through to police after using a Vonage IP phone during an armed
burglary, during which her parents were shot and wounded.
The automatic emergency services line could not recognise her
phone and pinpoint her location and recommended she used another
phone, which she did not have.
As VoIP systems use the internet and bypass the public switched
telephone network, emergency services cannot use the fixed line
phone system to trace a caller location.
In response to the lawsuit, Vonage, which has recently entered
the UK market, said it did warn customers that they had to sign up
to a separate 911 service to make emergency calls.
VoIP companies looking to exploit the UK market have said that
the rule that all new service providers must provide a 999
emergency service is a barrier.
Telecoms regulator Ofcom is considering whether they should
still have to as part of a consultation into voice over broadband
services. Ofcom's initial stance is that they shouldn't.
Vonage says it has 500,000 customers in the US and is opening
15,000 new accounts a week.