New York Laws
Article 22-A - Consumer Protection From Deceptive Acts and Practices
349-B-1 - Voice Over Internet Protocol 911 Disclosure.

(a) "Consumer" or "purchaser" means a retail customer who purchases
voice over internet protocol services for personal use in a place of
residence or elsewhere in New York state;
(b) "Seller" or "reseller" means any retailer, distributor,
manufacturer, or third-party who sells or offers for sale voice over
internet protocol equipment or service therefor or both directly to a
consumer or purchaser or places in the chain of distribution such
equipment to be ultimately sold to a consumer or purchaser;
(c) "Voice over internet protocol" or "VoIP" shall have the same
meaning as the term "interconnected VoIP service" as set forth in 47
C.F.R., Section 9.3, or any successor regulation adopted by the Federal
Communications Commission, and which defines the term as a service that:
(i) enables real-time, two-way voice communications,
(ii) requires a broadband connection to the user's location,
(iii) requires internet protocol-compatible customer premises
equipment (CPE), and
(iv) permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the
public switched telephone network (PSTN) and to terminate calls to the
PSTN. For purposes of this section, three different types of VoIP
service offered to consumers are addressed as defined in this paragraph:
fixed, nomadic and foreign exchange;
(d) "E911 system" or "enhanced 911" has the meaning provided for by
subdivision three of section three hundred one of the county law;
(e) "Basic 911" or "911" means a service that connects the caller to a
public service answering point (PSAP);
(f) "Public service answering point" or "PSAP" has the meaning
provided for in subdivision six of section three hundred one of the
county law;
(g) "Fixed VoIP consumer" means a consumer whose VoIP service permits
the placement of a telephone call from only the location where such
service is being provided;
(h) "Nomadic VoIP consumer" means a consumer whose VoIP service
provider and service allows such consumer to make calls from any
location where such consumer can obtain access to internet service;
(i) "Foreign exchange VoIP consumer" means a consumer whose VoIP
service provider and service allow such consumer in one telephone
exchange to receive telephone calls placed as local calls in another
exchange that such consumer has selected (e.g. a consumer located in the
city of Amsterdam or the city of Utica with a New York city local
telephone number).
2. (a) All VoIP sellers and resellers shall provide consumers with
notification, before service commencement and during service provision,
regarding any material limitations associated with their basic or
enhanced 911 service, and whether such service is basic 911 service or
enhanced 911 service.
(b) Such notice shall be provided to consumers in the marketing
material used for television, radio, and printed media; in the terms and
conditions of service; in on-line material; through VoIP sellers' and
resellers' customer service representatives; in consumer service
contracts; and in VoIP services starter and installation kits.
(c) Such sellers and resellers shall also secure consumers' express
acknowledgement that they are aware of any limitations upon basic or
enhanced 911 services from the VoIP services offered by such sellers and
resellers prior to providing consumers with VoIP service.
(d) Where service limitations exist, or both basic and enhanced 911
service are unavailable to the consumer, VoIP sellers and resellers

shall provide consumer notification during service provision, and by
issuing warning stickers to be affixed to telephone sets through any
subsequent advertising, and annually in the customer's billing insert.
(e) All VoIP sellers and resellers shall provide nomadic VoIP
consumers with notification, both before service commencement and during
service provision, regarding the necessity (if applicable) of
re-initializing or resetting or reactivating such consumers' basic or
enhanced 911 services at each new location from which such consumers
access VoIP services.
(f) All VoIP sellers and resellers shall use all reasonable efforts to
prevent basic or enhanced 911 calls from foreign exchange VoIP consumers
from being routed to the wrong PSAP.
3. Nothing in this section shall in any way limit the rights or
remedies that are otherwise available to a consumer or purchaser under
any other law.
4. Nothing in this section shall in any way limit the rights or
remedies that are otherwise available to any seller or reseller against
any other seller or reseller of VoIP services or equipment or both.
5. The attorney general may bring a civil action against any seller or
reseller who violates any provision of this section to enforce the
violation and may recover any or all of the following:
(a) up to one hundred thousand dollars for a knowing pattern or
practice of such violations;
(b) costs and reasonable attorney's fees; and
(c) whenever the attorney general believes from evidence satisfactory
to him or her that a knowing violation of this section or a pattern or
practice of violating this section has occurred or is about to occur, an
order to enjoin such violation.
6. Nothing in this section is intended to extend, limit or conflict
with the notice and related obligations of providers subject to 47
C.F.R. part 9 or any successor regulation or law.