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VOIP’s Deadly Flaw

March 1, 2005 /

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Net-based 911 fight puts lives on line

Seventeen-year-old Joyce John frantically grasped the portable phone and dialed 911. Downstairs, her parents struggled with two armed robbers.

"Joyce, Joyce, call the police!" her mother, Sosamma, screamed. But when she did, she heard this message: "Stop. You must dial 911 from another telephone."

Joyce grabbed another phone downstairs but got the same recording. She finally banged on the door of a neighbor, who called an ambulance. By then, her parents had been shot. They survived, but their attackers fled.

The problem: Joyce tried to call from a phone with Internet-based technology, known as VoIP, for voice over Internet protocol. Even though the family’s VoIP service provided a basic 911 feature, Joyce’s father, Peter, didn’t realize he had to activate it.

By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-02-28-voip-usat_x.htm