Jeff Pulver provides his thoughts on the FCC's order for E911 requirementts for VoIP that was released today (Some Initial Impressions of the FCC's "Order on E911 Requirements for IP-Enabled Service Providers").

Having said the foregoing, I am concerned that the FCC inverted what, to me, could have been a forward-looking approach that might have seriously advanced our emergency response capabilities. Rather than compelling VoIP providers to build "backwards" to accommodate the existing broadband-and-IP-limited emergency response centers, the FCC could have worked to bring the emergency response centers into the 21st Century. The PSAPs should all have broadband access and become IP-enabled. In fact, voice should not be the only mechanism to place an emergency "call." An IP user should be able send an IM, SMS, text or email message to emergency responders. In other words, the PSAPs should be upgraded; the PSAPs should become broadband-ready and should talk in IP to the IP-enabled world. That would produce a much more robust emergency response system. Instead, we might be stuck with a mediocre, limited, narrow-band emergency response capability and never get around to devoting the resources needed to upgrade the existing emergency response infrastructure.