Vonage, in trouble with Texas and Michigan state attorneys is trying its best to fix the e911 problem. It signed an agreement with Verizon to offer an enhanced 9-1-1 service to its customers in the Verizon service area. Verizon is the first ILEC to work closely with any nomadic VoIP service to ensure emergency calling keeps pace with VoIP technology. Given VZ’s willingness to work with Vonage, I am not surprised by this statement from Jeffrey A. Citron, Vonage’s CEO: “Verizon is a responsible steward of the E9-1-1 public trust, through their foresight Vonage is able to implement an E9-1-1 solution that will serve all customers.” Knowing JC, this one must have been tough to say, because he did take swipes at other phone operators (perhaps SBC?) Update: Connecticut just sued Vonage. BroadbandReports writes: Suing Vonage is the new black

How It Works

When Vonage customers dial 9-1-1, the call is routed to Vonage’s 9-1-1 server using industry standard SIP protocol. The Vonage server then queries Intrado for routing instructions. The call is then directed to the media gateway connection to the Verizon network, over a dedicated physical circuit connected directly to Verizon’s selective router that serves the Public Safety Answering Point (“PSAP”). Simultaneously, Intrado places the customer’s address and telephone number into the Automatic Location Information (ALI) database. The supplementary special key unique to the call is included in signaling, and allows the PSAP 9-1-1 operator to pull the customer’s address and phone number from the ALI database. Vonage, Verizon and Intrado intend to implement this first-of-its-kind E9-1-1 solution throughout Verizon territory within 6 months. To implement this novel solution, Verizon will perform all necessary modifications and translations to the network elements in each PSAP service area that bundle the ALI and selective routing infrastructure. The proposed solution is compliant with NENA’s proposed I2 technical standard.