Texas sued Vonage on behalf of consumers who cannot get to 911 emergency services. The suit is the aftermath of a home invasion shooting where the caller could not get through to 911. Fortunately, no one was killed.
Texas claims that Vonage provided inadequate warning to voice over IP (VoIP) customers that they needed to register their location with Vonage.
As I have stated on the On Computers radio show, I have some not so pleasant experiences to report as a Vonage customer. However, I will support Vonage's position in this case. Vonage has the problem that VoIP adapters are portable. In fact, take your adapter with you on a trip -- anywhere in the world. Because IP addresses have no correlation to geography, Vonage, AT&T, Skype and the other VoIP providers have no way of mapping a customer's VoIP adapter to a local Emergency 911 call center. For that reason, Vonage prominently informs new customers in its welcome e-mails, adapter user manual, and web site set-up instructions that a 911 instructions form has to be filled out and filed. If you read the Vonage literature or installation instructions, you really cannot miss the 911 instructions.
The Texas law suit will pivot on how proactive Vonage needs to be with customers who do not read instructions. A sad state in law and in consumer behavior.
Peter S. Kastner
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