Washington, DC – February 15, 2012 – The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International today issued the following statement in response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Open Meeting, which addressed the issue of “Extending Outage Reporting Obligations to Interconnected VoIP Services”:

From APCO International President Gregg Riddle:

“We applaud the FCC for extending outage reporting to interconnected VoIP providers, as those services increasingly carry a significant number of 9-1-1 calls. We also hope that, in the future, the Commission will require similar reporting for broadband providers and take steps to ensure that Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) receive real-time reports of outages that could impact the receipt of 9-1-1 calls.”

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About APCO International
APCO International is the world’s largest organization of public safety communications professionals. It serves the needs of public safety communications practitioners worldwide—and the welfare of the general public as a whole—by providing complete expertise, professional development, technical assistance, advocacy and outreach. www.apcointl.org.