Telephony services are offered through a variety of avenues, such as landline phones, cellular phones, and more recently, Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP is a relatively new telephony service that provides communications using Internet protocols rather than the traditional telephone service. VoIP service allows calls to be made to, and received from, traditional phone numbers using a high-speed (broadband) Internet connection (i.e., DSL, cable modem, or broadband wireless technology) instead of using the traditional telephone communication lines. VoIP is implemented by either placing an adapter between a traditional phone and broadband connection or by using a special VoIP phone that connects to a computer or Internet connection.
Traditional wireline phone services have generally associated a particular phone number with the fixed physical location of the corresponding telephone line. Cellular telephony services determine a cellular caller's physical location by associating the cellular phone with the physical location of the cellular network antenna with which the cellular customer's radio (telephone) is communicating. VoIP services, however, enable consumers to take their home or business phone service almost anywhere because VoIP services can be used from virtually any broadband connection anywhere in the world. This portability raises a number of challenges for the emergency services community in that it makes determining the location of a VoIP caller extremely difficult, if not impossible, because the only information transmitted across the Internet from VoIP callers is the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses associated with the call traffic. Currently there is not a reliable means of mapping an IP address to a precise physical location anywhere in the world.
Emergency 911 calls from a traditional telephone are usually sent to emergency service providers who are responsible for helping people in a particular geographic area or community. These emergency service providers often can automatically identify the caller's location and direct the closest emergency personnel to that location. They also often automatically identify the caller's telephone number so that the caller can be reached in the event the emergency call is disconnected.
Consumers with VoIP telephone service have experienced problems accessing 911 emergency services in the same manner as traditional communication services due to the lack of any physical location information associated with their telephone. In some instances, these problems were caused by the consumer failing to provide certain information (such as physical location information) to their VoIP provider in order for their VoIP provider to be able to set up 911 service or the consumer moving their VoIP service to another location without updating their physical location information with the VoIP service provider.
One proposed approach for alleviating these problems involves a communication cycle between a VoIP telephone adapter and a communication network where the VoIP telephone adapter communicates with the network once every twenty-four hours. Every time the telephone adapter is disconnected from a power source and reconnected, it communicates with the network to “check in,” and the communication cycle is reset. The network then identifies that the cycle has been reset and recognizes that this could mean that the VoIP telephone adapter, and consequently the customer, has changed locations. Therefore, upon detection of a shift in the communication cycle, the network temporarily suspends the customer's service and posts a message at the customer's web portal directing the customer to confirm the existing registered physical location information or to register a new physical address. Any calls attempted before this physical location information has been confirmed or changed are intercepted and require the caller to confirm or change the physical location information before a call can be completed. This suspension of service does not affect 911 calls, which continue to be associated with the previously registered physical location information.
This approach is dependent upon the timing of the communication signal from the telephone adapter and burdens the consumer by denying phone service until the physical location information is resolved. Further, this approach is initiated, for example, every time a customer powers on/off their system, loses power, reboots the router, or loses Internet connectivity; therefore the customer loses phone service after each of these occurrences, which in many cases are not the result of a location change and instead create a “false positive” trigger. This inconveniences the customer by suspending telephone service unnecessarily.
The above and other difficulties continue to present challenges to providing effective emergency 911 telephone services and protecting the public safety.