Level 3 brings E911 to VoIP

Level 3 Communications has added enhanced E-911 capabilities to its voice-over-IP services in more than 300 markets serving approximately 60 million households nationwide.

The company has been deploying the new capabilities over the course of the last year and will continue the buildout in 2005, said Sureel Choksi, executive vice president of services for Level 3, which is a VoIP wholesaler. The Internet service providers, cable companies and telephone companies who use Level 3 services will be able to build the enhanced 911 functionality into their services as well.

E-911 enables emergency responders to identify the address from which a 911 call is made and is difficult to do over an Internet Protocol network, since the caller is not tied to a phone number that is assigned to a specific address.

Level 3 chose to adopt a more stringent approach to employing E-911 than many VoIP providers have used. The company interconnected its existing nationwide network to 911 tandems and established dedicated connections from its network to public network switches that serve public safety answering points (PSAPs) in more than 1500 national rate centers.

"In our view, mainstream consumers will not fully embrace voice over IP as a replacement for the traditional land line unless they are confident that it will deliver the public-safety features they are accustomed to," said Donna Lachance, senior vice president of Consumer Voice Services for Level 3, in a prepared statement.

"We believe the E-911 capability we are embedding into the Level 3 network represents enormous progress in addressing this issue, and that it will serve as a real differentiator for Level 3 in the marketplace. We are committed to maintaining a leadership position in this area, and we look forward to expanding our E-911 footprint even further in the coming quarters."