Fact: VoIP carriers providing home phone service in Canada are not required to provide 911 service to their clients. They are required to offer it, but the price is not regulated and often exceeds the price of regular monthly phone service, leading many clients to skip it.

Fact: In order to avoid liability for mishandled 911 calls, the VoIP carriers actually block access to 911 if the customer has not paid extra for enhanced 911 service. Calls to 911 get a “no service” signal.

Fact: 911 emergency centres in major Canadian cities do not provide any backup access through regular phone lines, making it impossible to make an emergency call from a VoIP line that does not have the extra-cost e911 service.

This is a tragedy waiting to happen.