E911 still remains an issue for VoIP phones:

Dispatchers in the Lackawanna County Communications Center may not be able to pinpoint the location of someone who uses VoIP to call 911, officials say.

Tom Dubas, director of county emergency services, has seen danger in using VoIP.

“On traditional phone lines, we get the origin of the calls,” Mr. Dubas said. “With wireless service, we get location in relation to a cell phone tower.”

That is not the case with VoIP customers, because the calls are routed through computer servers and regular phone lines before reaching the communications center. So the location of the caller may not be known, unless the origin has already been programmed into the communication center’s system.

Placed from a cell phone or a traditional landline phone, 911 calls arriving at the communications center are prioritized for the seven dispatchers, Mr. Dubas said. But VoIP calls come in over seven- and 10-digit lines, which have a lower priority.