An important issue with VOIP services is the ability to connect to emergency services, and the ability of the emergency services to determine the location of the caller. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently ruled that VOIP service providers must automatically link customers to a 911 service (911 is the U.S. emergency number), and provide an originating address for the call.
Some analysts are seeing this as an attempt by traditional phone companies to raise the costs of VOIP providers and slow their business growth.