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Why VoIP Makes Telecom Regulations Irrelevant
An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek Online analyzes why state and federal regulators' attempts to label VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) a "telecommunications service" is wrong - and threatens to undermine the technology. It quotes Vint Cerf as saying: 'To single out VoIP as a telephone service is a terrible misunderstanding of the Internet industry. I would submit that, someday, the phrase Internet telephony will sound as archaic as 'horseless carriage' sounds today.'" We've also recently discussed Vonage's attempts to fight telecom regulation in Minnesota.
Moreover, according to AT&T, Sprint threatened to disconnect the circuits unless AT&T agreed to move all traffic onto paid-for-access service. When AT&T complained, Sprint resumed service but filed a billing dispute claiming that access fees apply whether the call is delivered over the Net or through copper wires.
Sprint disputes AT&T's account, saying the dropped calls were a "translation error" due in part to AT&T's desire to hide what it was doing. Either way, Sprint maintains that the calls should be subject to traditional access fees.
As someone on the other side against AT&T in the 80's over a law called "Avoidance of Toll Charges", I find this incredibly ironic. It seems arguable that AT&T is now a phone phreak.
Hey, AT&T... can I have my Commodore SX-64 portable back now?
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
businesses that try to enact legislation which protects not only their interests, but a business model that is no longer relevant due to advances in science?
Get with the times, or get out of the way.
We've seen time and time again, the government is not very good at handling technology. They inevitabley screw it up. They overregulate and kill whatever was good to begin with. After a while they'll find a large corportation that they can back via the DMCA to comandere the technology and prosocute the originators for piracy. This has happened before. And it looks like they're planning to do it again.
KEEP YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF.
A free, open internet has done wonders for this country economically and technologically. Yet they continue to turn and backstab the free and open system.
damn... damn damn.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
the phrase Internet telephony will sound as archaic as 'horseless carriage' sounds today.
Well, we used to call it just "net phony", but people kept confusing it with dating services.
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As I understand it all those "10-10-$NUM" services you see advertised on the television all use VoIP. My 5 cent (CA$) long distance (to
Trolling is a art,
The article focuses on why WOIP should not be held to conventional telephone's regulations because the technology involved is vastly different. However, to the end user, they just (or least should be able to) pick up the phone and dial a number. If VOIP is providing a functionally equivalent service, then they should be held to the same standards as conventional phone services. (Note: This is why Paypal gets to screw their customers regularly, since they are not regulated as a bank)
If Vonage et. all. succeed, it should be on the basis of providing a better product for less money, not by finding and exploiting loopholes in the regulations that are desinged to protect consumers.
OK...
I can do this. I am, after all,
a superhero!
Actually Verizon is already trying to head off competition from VOIP services by offering a "Freedom" package (I don't know what the other Baby Bells are doing) which includes DSL, unlimited local and long distance for a set price (wireless as well.) I expect that this is to stop encroachment of VOIP into the lower end of the market (residential / small business.)
One of the reasons I got the VOIP service was the fact that I'm sick of being scr*w*d with by local phone companies. It's also cheaper, and the sound quality is better. (And hey - I'm a geek.)
I just recently moved. I had a cable modem installed in my new house before I cut off my broadband service at my old house. I unplugged the little Cisco box that my Vonage phone service runs out of and took it to my new house and plugged it in. I ran the phone cable that comes out of it into the nearest wall jack... et voila! My home phone service for my entire house just moved from one house to the next in 20 minutes with no hassles.
The last time I moved I was using Qwest. Instead of transferring my phone number from one home to the next in adjoining towns in the Minneapolis suburbs, they transferred my phone number to a town in Iowa and told me that there was no way that they could move it back in less than three days.
Anything that threatens to impede the growth of regular phone alternatives must be stopped. The traditional phone companies deserve to die a slow death if they can't get their heads around the idea of "customer service" instead of "self serving."
Quoth he
"It's all academic anyway..."
The one reason that the government wants to treat VOIP as a telecom service is wiretapping.
CALEA requires access to telecom services, for just that purpose.
Did everyone sleep through the blackout of 3 weeks ago? VOIP didn't work. Cel phones didn't work. Land lines worked. Why? The fundamental reason is regulatory requirements that ensure a certain level of reliability. Those requirements date from a different era - lord knows they'd never pass in today's "pro-business" climate. Imagine if everyone had been using VOIP and there were no self-powered phone network? I hope you have a ham radio license!
The entire purpose of regulatory bodies is to shape the market such that companies act in ways beneficial to the public interest, where absent regulation they would be inclined to cut corners for short term profit, setting up everyone for a disaster in the long run.
Why can vonage sell unlimited phone service for $40/mo? They externalize all the costs of line maintenance. If your broadband service fails, you have no phone, and it's not Vonage's problem to rectify it.
Personally, I can't stand ILECs and in fact don't have a land line myself, but the dogma that telephony shouldn't be subject to regulatory requirements if it uses the internet doesn't sit well with me.
Of course, if internet service was as reliable as electric service, or if either were as reliable as phone service, this wouldn't be an issue. But the reason the land-line phone service is reliable is gov't regulation.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
Taxes are supposed to pay for government services though. Taxing my analog phone pays for 911, for instance. Taxing my property pays for police and roads and sewer, etc. Sin taxes on alcohol or gasoline pay for the governments steps to repair the damage those products do (supposedly). Food isnt taxable, because the government isnt feeding me. Taxing my internet usage pays for - what? When the government starts slapping down infrastructure and pushing broadband out to everyone, then they can tax it.
I know the principle of taxation has spread to the point that every time money changes hands, the government gets some of it, but it's wrong.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
And yes, the Vonage customer's end is VOIP and independent of the existing phone line system(this is only true for cable, if the broadband is DSL then it's part of the phone system).
But the other isn't. In fact, it's that non VOIP other end that allows Vonage to exist at all.
Anyone who says Vonage isn't a telephone service doesn't understand the system.
See, if two people had broadband(a requirement for the Vonage system) they could talk in stereo sound with video added for..... NOTHING.
That $40 a month Vonage charges people is for the phone system/internet interface it offers. Nothing else.
If EVERYONE had a broadband connection tommorrow, Vonage would file chapeter 11 the following day.
Vonage uses the existing phone system for half or more of it's buisiness, it should have to support that system like every other buisiness that profits from it's existence.
Do you want reliable telephone service? Even if there is a power failure?
During the northeast blackout a month ago, my landline phone went dead also. Meanwhile, if Roadrunner had backup juice on their network, my broadband would not go out even in the event of a blackout (my home server, firewall, Tivo and Vonage ATA can live for 4 hours off the grid).
Do you want guaranteed availability of telephone service at uniform and reasonable rates, even if you live on a farm or in a slum?
Where there is broadband Internet, there can be VoIP. As last-mile broadband gets more economical via wireless and optical (along with traditional copper and cable), so will VoIP.
Do you want 911 service that works?
I can dial 911 from my Vonage home telephone just fine, thank you very much.
If Vonage starts overcharging, I will be happy to switch to another VoIP service, such as packet8.