Will It Take UK's Ofcom To Make Canadian SkypeIn Numbers Available?
UK's regulatory agency may finally force Skype into providing 911 services at which point providing Canadian SkypeIn may become trivial.
A major issue for Canadian Skypers is the unavailability of Canadian SkypeIn numbers. We Canadians can have US SkypeIn numbers and UK (or several Eurocountry) SkypeIn numbers but not Canadian SkypeIn numbers. I recently confirmed with a CRTC spokesperson that, in addition to the need for Skype to obtain a business agreement with a Canadian CLEC (Rogers, Bell, Telus, etc.) to provide SkypeIn numbers, they also need to provide e911 services to be in compliance with CRTC regulations. And this would involve contracting with a Canadian 911 service provider as does DID provider Unlimitel. But that is not the entire story; Skype would also have to provide callerID service to be in compliance with e911.
Well, it seems the holiday in the UK is about to come to an end. Andy Abramson at VoIP Watch brings our attention to a new requirement for UK operators of VoIP services to provide access to the '999' emergency services number. Seems like, in spite of all the disclaimers by VoIP service providers, 78% of households believe the could call 999 from their VoIP service. Another case of customers simply wanting a service to be transparent to the underlying communications technology:
Ofcom's decision to require access to emergency services has been made because of the confusion that consumers face with the ever merging of phone and Internet services. It will be more and more difficult to discern whether a telephone call is routed over VoIP or the traditional PSTN network, especially for someone who doesn't understand the technology or isn't aware of the specific setup at a location.
Effectively it appears that Ofcom will force Skype to put together the legal and technical infrastructure for providing emergency services for SkypeIn numbers. So, while Canada became totally independent of the UK politically in 1931 and repatriated its constitution in 1982, it may take a UK regulatory authority to force Skype's hand on providing SkypeIn number compliant with CRTC e911 emergency services requirements. Rule Britannia and all that! Or, is this a case of the (British) Empire strikes back?
Tags: Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeIn Canada, Ofcom, CRTC, Unlimitel, Rogers, Bell Canada, Telus, Allstream, Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch
Comments
OFCOM said in June 2007 they were going to address this by June 2007. link. As in the US, e911 was raised as a barrier to entry by incumbent telcos against upstart VoIP providers. Everything seems to turn on the definition of VoIP. Are you a Vonage-like landline replacement? A soft-phone or web page like Skype? Or something in between, like the 3 Skypephone? I'm betting that Skype gets a pass from OFCOM for all their products but the PC-free phones with Skype hard-embedded in them, like the IPEVO Solo.
btw, it will only take one loss of a major US lawsuit for contributing to someone's injury or death for Skype to pay for e911 service for many of the larger markets. Given that an instance of Skype rarely knows where in the world it is (I may be on Phil's laptop and know his home address, but is his laptop at home, at work, on business travel, on holiday?), it becomes exceptionally difficult to provide the correct data to e911 service providers for each account.
In any event, Canadian SkypeIn is on my list of things to wish for in the new year.
Posted by: Phil Wolff | December 21, 2007 08:56 AM