December 21, 2007... The absence of "911" service on VOIP is really not a problem.

What does it take to implement Emergency Services in Skype and other VOIP services?

It requires a little bit of personal work, but the result is well worthwhile and could be satisfactory for most people. The first step is to acquire the DIRECT PHONE NUMBERS for the various emergency services for your local area (or the areas in which you normally reside). These might include number for Fire, Police and Ambulance. You might even to able to find a general number that goes to the official 911 "switchboard". You then assign these numbers a name with a 911 prefix in your address book, Skype for example. Then when you require emergency services, a list of the relevant numbers pops up simply by typing "911" into the appropriate window. My own 911 services in Skype looks like this:

The fact is that 911 service as defined by the Telecoms is impossible to replicate in VOIP because one's precise geographical location is cannot be determined given the borderless nature of Internet traffic. The 911 "problem" therefore cannot and will not ever be solved. I suspect that the Telecoms are making an issue out of this simply to put political pressure on VOIP. Their hope is that politicians will have little enough understanding of technology that they will actually impose sanctions to require VOIP carriers to implement the impossible.

Here's another suggestion: Skype and other VOIP services should implement a worldwide 911 "phone book" from which their customers can grab Emergency numbers that are relevant to their personal situations. This simple hack may be enough to forestall the efforts by the Telecoms to slow down the growth of VOIP. The side benefit (for the VOIP carrier) is that it will produce more paying customers for interconnection with PSTN (e.g.. SkypeOUT).