But they already do. The phone numbers they offer are all from facility based CLECs. I know that my number was on the Paetec switch in Syracuse, in the same building with all the other CLEC switches and probably the cell switches, too.
Agreed.
I see you've never tried VoIP service. When I signed up for Vonage, they told me fairly clearly that they needed to know my physical address for 911 service, so I gave it to them. Didn't ever try it, and I'm not sure how informative a test would have been since the PSAP for my house is the same one for the phone's rate center. Same for Lingo, where part of my account profile is my physical address, separate from the billing address (my po box) and the address where they shipped the adapter.
Collecting the address is a minor problem compared to the real problem, most VoIP carriers, with the notable exception of Packet8, won't pay for a real E911 connection to the PSAP.
Don't be silly. Governments tax all sorts of stuff. Since PSAPs are uniquely useful to people who use phones, there's some logic in taxing phones to support them. I agree that the amount of 911 tax could be better matched to the cost of the PSAPs.
Don't be silly. We have library districts for that.
R's,
John