The Regulation of Voice over IP (VoIP) in Europe

Implementing access to emergency services is a challenge in view of the very different emergency systems2 across Europe. In particular, access to emergency services can be extremely difficult for VoIP-based service providers to the extent that their customers can move (i.e. are nomadic). If the customer's location cannot be reliably determined through automated means, it is impossible to complete an emergency call to the proper emergency response unit, and it is also impossible to reliably report the user's whereabouts. Technical solutions are improving over time, but gaps are likely to remain for a long time to come.