I've been reacting with some skepticism to the recent FCC ruling that (apparently) all Internet phone service providers provide E911 services within four months.

The mainstream media has been portraying this decision as one in which the FCC has finally gotten it right, and that, besieged by public outcry, the four major U.S.-based regional phone companies who would need to provide all their 400 or so Voice over Internet Protocol rivals access to E911 have finally bowed to the public's wishes.

Would be that this were true.

Instead, the phone companies have been dragged kicking and screaming into this. They are announcing all these deals with the likes of Vonage because investor's hate uncertainty, lawsuits and regulation.

The problem is that while SBC's, Qwest's, Verizon's, and BellSouth's apparent deals with Vonage to provide them with E911 sound so cooperative, what is really going on with here is the industry equivalent of "most-favored nation" treatment. I don't see such a rush to accede to the E911 technical needs of those independent VoIP providers who are less capitalized than Vonage. And,given Vonage's latest $200 million funding round, that means about everyone.

Vonage is playing with the big boys now, no longer leading the charge for its fellow pure-play VoIP providers. That's why I say Vonage is now part of the establishment.