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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit today in Austin against Vonage Holdings, accusing the fast-growing VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) provider of failing to warn customers about limits to its 911 emergency dialing service.

Abbott's lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Travis Country, Texas, accuses Vonage of deceptive marketing practices for not making clear to customers that they must sign up separately for 911 service, instead of its automatically being part of the Vonage VoIP offering.

In an announcement about the lawsuit, Abbott cited a February incident in Houston in which a family with Vonage service couldn't get through to 911 dispatchers. Joyce John tried to dial 911 from a VoIP phone in her home as burglars broke into the house and shot and wounded her parents.

John's call to 911 connected to a recording saying she would have to dial 911 from a different phone. She eventually contacted authorities from a neighbor's house. "This Houston family's moment of crisis signals a dire need for Vonage to clearly communicate to its Internet telephone customers that 911 access may not be available to them," Abbott said in a statement. "This is not just about bad customer service; it's a matter of life and death."

Vonage Responds

A Vonage spokesperson said that the company would welcome a dialog with Abbott on how to improve its 911 service. Vonage customers are told multiple times, including twice during the subscription process that they need to take action to sign up for 911 service, added Brooke Schulz, senior vice president of corporate communications for Vonage. Vonage warns customers on their dashboard online account summary that they have not signed up for 911 service, and Vonage sends e-mail to customers who have not activated 911 service, Schulz said.

On the features page of its Web site, the company tells customers that they must preactivate 911 service, though it also notes that "Vonage offers 911 dialing to all customers."

"We want to work with the attorney general's office to resolve his concerns," Schulz said. "We do all these things today, and if those aren't adequate, let's talk about it."

Lawsuit Particulars

The lawsuit, filed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, requests that the court issue an injunction stopping Vonage from "misrepresenting" the type of emergency telephone service it offers, according to a press release from Abbott. The suit seeks $20,000 per violation.

Because VoIP services route 911 calls through IP networks instead of using the traditional telephone network, VoIP 911 service doesn't work the same way as traditional 911 service. Dispatch centers can't pinpoint the address where a VoIP call originates, as they can with calls from phones using enhanced 911 service; such service is available with most traditional telephone service today.

Vonage on March 7 reported that it had exceeded 500,000 total phone lines on its network, and it was signing up customers at a rate of 15,000 lines per week.