USA Today Internet phone fees spark FCC debate

"AT&T cannot avoid paying hefty fees to local phone companies to connect long-distance calls by carrying big chunks of the calls on the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission is soon expected to rule.

The decision is sparking a debate at the FCC about regulation of Internet phone calls. It eventually could spell higher fees for new retail Internet phone services, such as those offered by Vonage and cable companies, and for their customers."

News.Com FCC: 'Pure' VoIP not a phone service

"The Federal Communications Commission, in a split decision, approved a request from voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider Pulver.com to be immune from the hefty stack of government rules, taxes and requirements that applied to 20th-century telephone networks."

"Other applications covered by the decision include Skype and instant-messaging programs from Microsoft, Yahoo and America Online. But the ruling appears to leave in limbo VoIP services from Vonage Holdings, cable giants and others that allow calls to be placed from a computer over a broadband connection to any phone number in the world, and vice versa."

redux [01.23.04]
News.Com FCC chief frowns on VoIP regulations

"The top U.S. telecom regulator said Thursday that he has no intention of setting rules for Internet telephony, which he said could have a dramatic impact on voice communications."

""It's probably the most significant paradigm shift in the entire history of modern communications, since the invention of the telephone," Michael Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, told journalists at the World Economic Forum."

redux [01.12.04]
News.Com Senator wants VoIP to be regulation free

"U.S. Sen. John Sununu said he's preparing legislation to keep broadband telephone service providers from being "smothered by state and federal regulators."

The New Hampshire Republican described the proposed law at the Consumer Electronics Show as a "clear, pre-emptive remedy" that directs state utility regulators to take a hands-off regulatory stance on what's called voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)."

News.Com California eases up on Net phone rules

"The California Public Utilities Commission will now take its time to decide whether to regulate Internet telephone service providers, according to a commissioner."

"Because of California's size, some industry insiders believe that the state's tactical shift could have an effect on New York and the handful of other states that are now weighing up the regulatory future of what are known as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers."

The New York Times A Debate on Web Phone Service
[requires 'free' registration]

"But Mr. Davidson is more than an adventuresome consumer. As a member of the Florida Public Service Commission, he is a regulator who is eager to see Internet telephone service spread because he predicts it can make the nation's phone services less expensive and richer in features.

That is why Mr. Davidson wants the federal and state governments to let Internet-based phone service blossom, free from regulation, taxes and surcharges. Like a growing number of officials who advocate minimal oversight of the service - including Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission - Mr. Davidson says Internet telephone service should be treated just like other unregulated Internet services, including e-mail messaging and Web surfing."

redux [12.01.03]
CommsDesign Stage set for FCC debate on regulating VoIP

"When the FCC examines VoIP in landmark hearings Monday, the battle lines in the debate will be sharply drawn between the country's two sunny states -- California and Florida. California wants to regulate VoIP, Florida doesn't.

Each state is sending a public regulatory commissioner to argue its respective merits."

redux [11.13.03]
BusinessWeek Why the Bells Should Be Very Scared

"When IBM talks, Corporate America listens. So Big Blue created quite a stir on Nov. 7 when a top exec told a tech conference in Atlanta that it hopes to move 80% of its 300,000 employees to voice-over-IP phone systems by 2008."

"[The] IBM announcement signifies that the end may be far nearer than previously thought for the legacy copper-wire phone networks that have built fortunes for the Baby Bells such as Verizon (VZ ) and SBC (SBC ) as well as AT&T (T ) and Sprint (FON ). When the largest tech company on the planet announces it no longer needs the phone company to manage its calls, you can bet the communications landscape has fundamentally changed."

SearchNetworking.com Former FCC chairman blasts agency's 'suspicious' VoIP actions

"The agency has waived the usual public comment period, which is often the first step before making such a ruling, Hundt said. Though the hearing is scheduled for Dec. 1, Powell wrote that the agency planned to issue a Notice of Public Rule Making (NPRM) "shortly after the hearing," in an effort to gather comments from the public.

Hundt said that language indicates that the agency had already made up its mind about what rules it plans to issue, and that the December hearing would be little more than a formality.

"I ran this agency," Hundt said. "I know you should be suspicious.""

News.Com Time Warner OK with VoIP regulation

"Time Warner plans to begin selling Internet phone service in California next year and will cooperate with regulators by seeking a telephone operator's license in the state, if necessary."

""We don't think it's a good idea to regulate VoIP right now. We want a debate and full airing," said Peter Casciato, an attorney representing Time Warner Cable, who attended the hearing. "(But) we want to be a very good corporate citizen.""

redux [10.19.03]
MSNBC Regulators still unclear on VoIP services

"But not only does VoIP challenge the business structure of large telecommunications carriers, it also threatens to turn the regulatory structures that govern the industry on their head. That's because VoIP calls are carried over a structure that does not track geographic origins and destinations - the central basis for regulations that govern and set rates for calls placed over traditional networks.

"It's no surprise that regulators smell blood and see a lot of money on the table," said a representative of one VoIP company that did not want to be identified. "What we don't need is the regulators coming down and quashing us just as this is getting started. It's similar to taxing the Internet. Let us get our legs under us.""

News.Com Court hangs up state VoIP rules

"Since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, regulators have sought to draw a strict division between voice networks and data networks. But with the rise of VoIP, that distinction is rapidly collapsing.

"It's a mess," said Kevin Werbach, founder of consulting firm Supernova Group and former FCC counsel for new technology. "The distinction between information and telecommunications services is in the 1996 act, but it assumes they are completely distinct...Today, all networks are digital and can provide many services in many different ways. (Regulators) are trying to come to an end result within a flawed legal framework.""

redux [10.08.03]
News.Com Court's call: Hands off VoIP

"Internet phone providers have won the first round in a clash with state regulators, providing needed momentum for the upstart industry.

In ruling from the bench late Tuesday, Minneapolis federal Judge Michael J. Davis permanently barred Minnesota from applying traditional telephone rules to Vonage, a pioneer in technology that lets consumers bypass the traditional phone network by making voice calls over a broadband connection."

redux [10.01.03]
Inc Internet Phone Service is Here

"There is no risk of everyone swooping out and buying VoIP phones and eliminating the plain old telephone service (POTS) overnight. However, in the next five years there is going to be some serious worry at the traditional phone companies about how they will make money."

"The local phone companies, or incumbent local exchange carriers, will do whatever they can to slow the growth of VoIP, but the fact that the phone traffic is on the Internet will make VoIP impossible to stop. Vonage, for example, isn't a phone company at all in the eyes of the Federal Communications Commission."

Cable Datacom News States Weigh Regulating VoIP As Traditional Phone Service

"The race is on among the states to regulate voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) service, or at least consider the regulation of VoIP.

Even though fewer than 150,000 American consumers use IP telephony over phone, cable or other wires, lawmakers and policymakers in up to 11 states--Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Alabama, Colorado and Virginia--are now mulling over some type of regulatory conditions, rules or restrictions on the service. And the list seems to be getting longer almost every week"

News.Com California to regulate VoIP providers

"The Golden State is the largest state to decide that voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers are subject to the same rules and regulations as all other telephone service providers."

"Because of its size and national stature, California's decision to bring VoIP providers into the regulatory fold could have enormous sway on the dozens of other state's now investigating a similar step."

News.Com VoIP provider Vonage to charge new fee

"Vonage, a Voice over Internet Protocol provider, has begun charging customers a $1.50 per month "regulatory recovery" fee.

"The fees were announced just as a growing number of states are clamoring for VoIP providers to pay taxes or fees to fund staple services such as 911 connections."

News.Com Parsing with Powell

"Q: What kind of VoIP regulations do you see as necessary? Should VoIP providers be treated just like Verizon Communications or other carriers?

A: We'll probably initiate something to look at it this fall. But let me emphasize that we're going to look at it. That doesn't say what we're going to do about it. We only know that it's a growing issue. Basically, the advanced platforms permit divorcing services and applications from the infrastructure. That's very different from the ancient telephone models, when the application was the same as the distribution."

The Register Numbers don't add up for Telcos

"This whole deal reminds me of some work I did for a UK advertising company years ago. I got to have lunch with the MD and Creative Director, who had just done market research for a cigarette lighter company on who their competition was. Was it Ronson, the low-end player? Or Dupont or Dunhill, the high-end players? Turns out that it actually was Parker Pen. The company learned that they were in the gift market.

My take is that telephone companies still think that other phone companies are their competition, and that the rules and givens of phone company competition will work in their favor. But actually they are actually in connection. And with increasingly wrong numbers."

redux [08.25.03]
News.Com Free ride over for VoIP?

"A cheap, Internet-based alternative to traditional telephone service is facing a sudden regulatory backlash that could slow adoption of the fast-growing technology, raise prices and put financially shaky start-ups out of business.

Two weeks ago, Minnesota drew first blood. It ordered so-called VoIP (voice over IP) provider Vonage Holdings to file for a telephone operator's license. Many see the move, the first attempt by a state public utilities commission to regulate an Internet telephony provider, as the beginning of a new regulatory framework for Internet telephone operators in the state."

redux [12.16.02]
The New York Times Web Calling Roils the Telecom World
[requires 'free' registration]

"After all, telecommunications and technology companies lost $7.6 billion in global market value from March 2000 to September 2002, as the industry was gripped by stunning collapses, financial scandals and an effort to absorb excess capacity on globe-spanning communications systems.

But alongside the industry's search for its direction after such turmoil are trends that threaten to destabilize global telecommunications further in 2003. These trends could be described as the start of a cannibalization of established services by disruptive new technologies."

redux [08.07.02]
Bob Frankston The Economist, the Internet, Telecom and the Dow

"Of course The Economist is not alone in this fundamental error but "Crash" story is a useful foil for addressing this misunderstanding.

It is a tragic misunderstanding since the woes of the Telecom industry are seen as representing the state of the economy rather than the collapsing of a facade of a Potemkin industry. In 1900's there was a real telecommunications industry just like in the 1800's when there was a thriving business in transporting ice from frozen lakes to warmer climes. Just as refrigeration put an end to the need for buying ice, the Internet has put an end to the need to buy telecommunications services from others. We just need commodity connectivity."

redux [02.08.02]
David Isenberg and David Weinberger The Paradox of the Best Network

"Despite the darkened outlook, new communications capabilities are within reach that will make the current Internet look like tin cans and string. The technical know-how exists. Radically simplified technologies can blast bits a million times faster than the current network at a millionth of the cost. These are sitting in laboratories undeveloped, in warehouses undeployed, and in the field underutilized.

It's not even that the communications revolution has been derailed by inept or self-aggrandizing behavior by incumbent telephone companies and their government regulators. Something more fundamental is at work."