OK, that "VOIP dialtone?" thread was getting really out of hand, so I'll condense my answers into one big ugly message:
1) 911 service. Yes, that is one of three reasons to keep your PSTN line. The other two reasons are: Inbound calls from local callers still should work on a POTS line, for now. You can't find VOIP providers in most area codes, so you'll most likely need to have a "local" number that finds it's way to you for "local" tasks. Secondly, the Internet is not as reliable as the phone system. Sorry, folks, it just works that way right now despite what your network engineer might tell you. That's not to say it's unreliable, but those last two nines are very expensive... Besides, any good network engineer will tell you that you should have multiple paths for your IP connectivity. With few exceptions, most homes do not have multipath connectivity. (note: businesses may in fact have better uptime on their IP network than their phone network, if they have competent engineers and a reasonable budget.)
1.5) There are reasonable technical solutions to this problem, but for the life of me I can't figure out why the 911 centers haven't gotten their act together and solved this. There are two halves to this problem: "What PSAP do I call? (and what phone number)" and "How do I get my location data to the PSAP once I call them?" C'mon, this is not difficult. The first question can be answered trivially: there _must_ be a database of address-to-PSAP mappings. Any PBX administrator (or SIP phone owner, for that matter) should be able to figure out their address. Methods for associating the PSAP number with the phone are numerous, and trivially implemented - if people don't keep their address information updated, they're SOL (though you can remind them in an automated fashion to keep it updated - just forbid them from using the service unless they verify the address every month or so.)
The second question is more difficult, but certainly possible. There may be kludge ways of doing it, and there should be more elegant ways of doing it. A SIP header with lat/lon/alt data that gets sent from the UA only on 911 (or other programmable string) calls might be reasonably elegant... maybe. But that only gets the data to the SIP proxy. That doesn't solve the issue of how you get that data from the SIP proxy to the PSAP, which at some point will be almost certainly through a PSTN connection... ADSI FSK, maybe? Ugly, and PSAPs would not want to invest in equipment. A national caller-id to location clearinghouse in which your proxy could participate (any 911 calls would create a temporary mapping)? Maybe, but probably not. Non-standard, and I doubt PSAP operators would want another tool, even if it is web-based and so easy a monkey could use it. I don't know. I guess I'll grill the PSAP people at the panel next month at VON. :-)
2) Networks of Asterisk servers, offering dialtone to each other in different places. YES, this is a good idea, but setting dialplans up for least-cost-routing via static routes is a pretty rotten and unscaleable task. See my conversations on why someone should implement TRIP in Asterisk (hey, I'm still looking for a programmer... anyone want some money?)
http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-dev/2003-July/001172.html
I already participate in one such network, and I get free calls into four large area codes into which I terminate much of my traffic, and they get... well... not much, since I live in an area code that gets very little traffic. :-) They get my undying gratitude.
3) Local service vs. long distance: I route local (read: "free") calls over my PSTN connection. I make very infrequent local calls, but it seems to work well for me. I could, probably without noticing, send all my calls through my LD provider, even those which are local, and not notice a change in my bills. The cost for a business when you examine the measured service that most businesses use vs. the cost of LD, is a silly comparison - it's very often cheaper to dial via a VOIP provider than it is to dial a local measured RBOC call. Go, Go, Gadget Deregulation!! Uh... wait... "de"regulation? This may be illegal if you're a CLEC/LEC, but if you're not a phone company, go right ahead.
4) To whoever asked, http://www.voicepulse.com/ should work with Asterisk, as they are SIP based. I don't know if they give you username/password though - I didn't look that far into it.
JT
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