Level 3 Announces E-911 Direct Service, Signs Vonage

Level 3 Communications announced the launch of its Level(3) E-911 Direct service as part of its VoIP portfolio. The offering includes both Level 3's fixed location and nomadic VoIP E-911 capabilities, supporting an FCC-compliant E-911 solution for interconnected VoIP providers. Using Level(3) E-911 Direct service VoIP providers can achieve compliance with the FCC's mandate for VoIP providers to deliver to their customers E-911 functionality.


Vonage has become the first customer to select the Level(3) E-911 Direct service to support nomadic VoIP customers. Level 3 anticipates that its nomadic solution will be implemented in the fourth quarter 2005, and the two companies plan to begin deploying E-911 service for Vonage customers in that quarter.


To offer the nomadic portion of the Level(3) E-911 Direct service, Level 3 is working with multiple VoIP Positioning Centers (VPCs) that are responsible for collecting, updating and reporting subscriber location information. The information provided by the VPCs will allow Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) operators to provide critical location information to emergency responders.


Level(3) E-911 Direct service routes and completes 911 calls with physical location information to the appropriate selective router and PSAP. The Level(3) E-911 Direct service works in conjunction with (3)VoIP Enhanced Local and (3)VoIP Local Inbound services to provide local and nationwide IP voice solutions.

http://www.level3.com/http://www.vonage.com