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May 19, 2005
When the FCC Gives Us Lemons, Let's Make Some Lemonade -- Silver Lining to the E911 Situation?
Maybe the FCC's E911 ruling will prove to be the kick in the butt that the IP-based communications community needed to move towards the end-to-end IP future.
The FCC rules are intended to subsume PSTN-connected services and not purer forms of computer-to-computer communications. Well the regulators are driving us away from the sacrosanct PSTN. Good riddance. They, and the more traditional carriers, can keep their paltry network with its limited capabilities to offer voice and few add-ons.
Admittedly, this limited communications network we call the PSTN controls virtually every communications consumer out there. There was once a time when the stagecoach controlled most of the transcontinental traffic. Some day, perhaps now even sooner than some anticipated, the wireline PSTN will be relegated to be little more than a minor, single-lane off-ramp on the IP-based network of networks.
I've always found it unfortunate that too many people associated VoIP with PSTN long distance arbitrage. Frankly, the economic advantage and ability to arbitrage has been like heroin to many in the VoIP community keeping us from realizing our true potential while we collect revenue by arbitraging against the PSTN pricing umbrella. Well, the regulators might be forcing us, cold turkey, to abandon the PSTN and the economic opportunities that it afforded. Well, now we can see what IP-based communications is all about. When we leave the PSTN and establish our own distinct all-IP, peer-to-peer networks, we'll, at last, show the world that IP-based communications is about so much more than cheaper, but undifferentiated voice service.
The paternalistic regulators might be forcing us to move out of the safe confines of the PSTN house and the arbitrage opportunity that it afforded, but perhaps we'll become stronger and more independent as a result.
Posted by jeff on May 19, 2005 07:37 AM | Permalink
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Comments
As we know the only companies who know who is using an IP address is the one who assigned this IP address, the ISP's.
If the ISP's worldwide connects their customers database with
the IP address delegated to customers, we have just what we want,
an exact location of where the VoIP call was made, IP_loc_DB !
If you are calling from your neighbor or a hotel in Stockholm,
the correct location will pop up at 911, because they know by
a lookup in the IP_loc_DB ! (IP address forwarded by VoIP provider)
Lookup in this db should only be available to 911 and similar
service, not by other ISP and VoIP providers directly.
(This db could also be nice to use to fight spam, crime, hacking, "I know where you are" !)
Posted by: Arnulf Sortland at May 20, 2005 07:41 PM