Telecommunications regulator Ofcom has said that providers of internet telephony must now allow emergency 999 calls over their networks and release caller location information where technically feasible, or face the risk of enforcement action.

The new rule for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) providers came in to effect today. The change will affect businesses such as BT, Vonage and Skype that offer services that connect VoIP calls to the public telephone network.

Operators have been ordered to provide the ability to make calls to 999, the emergency number in the UK and 112, the number that most of Europe uses for assistance. Ofcom previously told operators to put stickers on any equipment that allows emergency calls where possible over a service.

The rule, known as General Condition 4 of the General Conditions of Entitlement, also provides that the network must provide Caller Location Information for calls “to the extent that is technically feasible”.

Ofcom stated that the term ‘technically feasible’ means that location-based information must be provided where the VoIP service is being used at a predominantly fixed location.

In May, a child from Calgary, Canada, died when an ambulance was dispatched to the wrong address in Ontario, 2,500 miles away, after his parents called using their VoIP system.

The requirements currently apply to fixed line and mobile communications providers but the VoIP industry had resisted their extension. In December last year, the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition of Europe was set up as a lobby group, which includes Google, Microsoft and Skype among its founding members to influence the regulation of internet telephony.

The group warned against the “premature application of emergency call rules to VoIP services that are not a replacement for traditional home or business phone services”.

The VON Coalition added that this move “could actually harm public safety, stifle innovations critical to people with disabilities, stall competition, and limit access to innovative and evolving communication options where there is no expectation of placing a 112 call”.