[VOIPSEC] e911 peculiarities

[ANDRE LUIZ CABRAL DUTRA]

What I meant for "care" is that VoIP is:

   - If not operated as the PSTN, so if it is just an extra service and not
   a conventional service, carriers usually shut down the link and block the
   user in the Softswitch until the payment is done after some time of
   non-payment for the service.


If VoIP is considered and USED as a PSTN service, it has to answer all the
legacy issues that an user expects.

If a company does that (911) to allow the use of this services for emergency
calls, that is great, but in many cases it doesn´t work that way, money
almost always comes first. - American way - Don´t pay, don´t have compare it
with health care. Is the same problem. Everyone should have it but it
doesn´t work that way. It will always return to the interest of few and
politicians.

Also, there is another issue, how would you handle an emergency call if your
VoIP service runs through a Cable TV system and the CMTS is down? I don´t
recall the last time I had to complain with my PSTN company to fix a problem
and don´t remember any one that might have had to do it, but with voip
companies, well, it´s a hole different story. It happens much more often. In
some countries, companies have been forbideen to provide the service in some
regional places by law.

You might be mad for the charges related to PSTNs, but the service is always
available, so it´s reliable - Voip is? If you have complete control of all
your network and infra-structure, it might be, but then it would be a
"enterprise" service or a public one with limited scope.

I hope I´ve clarified my first statement.

André Dutra
Security consultant