The Federal Communications Commission established a Nov. 28 deadline for providers of interconnected VoIP services to provide enhanced 911 services to their users. It released an order Monday clarifying what providers must do if they miss the deadline.

In the ruling (PDF), the FCC stated that providers do not have to disconnect service for existing customers if they are unable to provide enhanced 911 service, which provides the caller’s location to 911 dispatchers, and routes the call via dedicated circuits to the correct 911 public safety answering point for the subscriber’s location.

Instead, carriers will be required to discontinue marketing and stop accepting new interconnected VoIP customers until they are able to provide the enhanced 911 service.

Carriers must also maintain on file the location of the subscriber’s VoIP equipment, and must provide a method of updating the location using only the interconnected VoIP telephone.

The FCC adopted the rules in June after a series of highly publicized incidents where VoIP callers trying to dial 911 were misrouted to administrative desks or unable to complete their 911 calls. The FCC had set an Aug. 29 deadline for compliance, but extended the deadline.

Before Monday’s ruling, AT&T had said that it would disconnect its CallVantage VoIP subscribers if they moved their VoIP equipment and failed to update their location information.