Feds eye SBC over 911

Should the U.S. force SBC and the three other Bell operating companies to open their 911 infrastructure to all Net phone providers?

That's the gist of an investigation U.S. telephone regulators are expected to start soon, says a source. Specifically, the Federal Communications Commission will look into whether local phone giant SBC can dictate the terms for Net phone calls to use its 911 infrastructure, the source said.

A Vonage spokeswoman said the FCC and Vonage met Wednesday to discuss why Vonage 911 calls aren't using SBC's 911 infrastructure, but she refused additional comment.

SBC doesn't think it's doing anything wrong, and the operator told Vonage that it's interested in meeting. In previous correspondence between the two companies, SBC also said it's making available any number of ways to access the 911 infrastructure, and that Vonage would like it to use it's own, proprietary way.