US Senate bill HR 3043 (New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008) has been passed into law and requires traditional telephone companies to make available access to 911 services for Voice over IP operators.

An article at VoIP Weblog suggest that the old telcos may have actually been blocking access to 911 for some VoIP operators. Smithonvoip is similarly aghast that 911 services which exist to provide access to emergency services could have been blocked.