A friendly reporter and I were speculating on Saturday about what the Level3 announcement would be. I guessed they would be working with either Skype or Vonage on E-911. Looks like I was right in one case. Level3 also has rolled out something more with Nomadic VoIP. Gee didn't AT&T talk about that a few months back from Intrado when they made this announcement?
Here's the release about VONAGE who is spending lots of money to get their E911 act together. I guess they have to in order to be a real phone company.
Vonage® Selects Level 3 To Expand 911 Capabilities
New VoIP Contract Will Provide Vonage With E-911 Solution For
Nomadic VoIP Customers
EDISON, N.J. and BROOMFIELD, Colo., September 19, 2005 - Vonage Network, a subsidiary of Vonage Holdings Corp, a leading provider of broadband phone service, today announced it has selected Level 3 Communications, LLC, the U.S. operating subsidiary of Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:LVLT) to enable critical components of Vonage’s nomadic E-911 service. Under the terms of the agreement, Level 3 will deliver its Level(3) E-911 DirectSM service to support Vonage’s E-911 rollout.
“Vonage is running hard and fast to meet the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 120-day deadline to turn up E-911 service throughout our footprint. To meet this ambitious goal, physical connectivity is the first critical piece of infrastructure we need to build to get our calls to the selective routers,” said Martin Hakim Din, senior vice president, Architecture, Vonage Network. “Level 3 offered the comprehensive and reliable set of services that enables us to get these connections up and running.”
With its advanced service offerings, Level 3 is setting the pace in enabling companies like Vonage to deliver Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 911 services to their customers. While others are now just beginning to develop their E-911 network assets, today Level 3 has network connections to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) that serve approximately 67% of all U.S. households, with a projected build-out to 70% by the end of 2005. Having network connections to the PSAPs is a necessary component of the delivery of any nomadic E-911 solution, and Level 3 believes that having its network connectivity already in place provides it with an advantage over its competitors.
Vonage will utilize Level 3’s existing Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) infrastructure for interconnection into hundreds of Selective Routers across the country. The Level (3) E-911 DirectSM service provides a critical component of Vonage’s E-911 solution needed to comply with the FCC’s mandate that all interconnected VoIP providers automatically provide E-911 services to their two-way voice customers. The two companies plan to begin deploying E-911 service for Vonage customers in the fourth quarter of 2005.
“National Emergency Number Association (NENA) looks forward to the E-911 service benefits which should result from Vonage's use of Level 3's established IP network and access to E-911 systems across large parts of the nation,” said David Jones, president, NENA. “The Emergency Services Gateway approach is supportive of NENA's Interim Solution (I2) path forward for VoIP E-911.”
In addition to the new Level(3) E-911 Direct service, Level 3 also provides key building blocks for VoIP services. These include (3)Voice® Termination service, which provides wholesale termination of voice calls, (3)VoIPSM Local Inbound service, which delivers local phone calls to IP end points nationwide, and (3)VoIP EnhancedSM Local service, which helps providers deliver IP-based local and long-distance communications services.
“Our work with Vonage is an important industry milestone. Vonage will be able to provide their customers with one of the industry’s broadest reaching E-911 network solutions,” said Sureel Choksi, executive vice president, Services of Level 3 Communications. “Our industry-leading Level(3) E-911 Direct offering is just one example of Level 3’s belief that technology advances should not sacrifice consumer safety.”