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Corman's Legislation Says VoIP Providers Must Send 911 Fees to PA
HARRISBURG --
In the wake of a Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) ruling which mandates that voice over the
internet (VoIP) providers provide E-911 services to customers, Sen. Jake Corman
(R-34) has introduced legislation requiring these companies to forward those 911
fees to the Commonwealth.
In May of this year, the FCC
issued an order requiring E911 service from interconnected VoIP providers.
These companies are similar to traditional telephone providers in that they
enable customers to receive calls from and terminate calls to the public
switched telephone network. Examples of VoIP providers include Vonage, Packet8,
AT&T's CallVantage, Broadvoice, SunRocket and Voicepulse.
Corman noted that many of
these companies already collect fees for providing 911 services to customers.
However, Pennsylvania currently has no law that compels them to forward those
911 fees back to the Commonwealth like traditional and wireless phone companies
must do.
This week Corman introduced
Senate Bill 936 to update Pennsylvania's Public Safety Emergency Telephone Act.
“VoIP companies have been
charging their customers fees for 911 services and scantily worded 'regulatory
recovery fees' for years,” Corman said. “But they keep these fees and do not
send them back to the states like their competitors in the landline and wireless
industries must do, to the detriment of our county 911 centers. With this
legislation we change that.”
Corman's bi-partisan Senate
Bill 936 requires all interconnected VoIP companies to charge customers $1 for
each line and forward that money to Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Emergency
Management Agency would then provide the fees to the counties where the
customers are located.
“In 2003 we responded to
counties who said they were losing 911 fees to the wireless industry by placing
a charge on each cell phone,” Corman said. “Now we must respond to the
increasing market share of the VoIP industry and ensure that they also send 911
fees back to our counties to help pay for the infrastructure and services they
use,” Corman said.
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