FCC Forum Divided on Future VoIP Regulation

ElCheapo writes "As the great philosopher Eminem once said, 'The FCC won't let [VoIP] be, or let [VoIP] be free.' In Washington today, the FCC held a public forum 'to gather information concerning advancements, innovations, and regulatory issues related to VoIP services.' Slashdot has seen numerous stories on VoIP regulation recently, but Tom Evslin, CEO of ITXC, brought up another point: If VoIP is over-regulated, it will not go away, it will just move to other countries and reach the point where regulation can no longer be enforced. With or without VoIP regulation, will a global P2P (PSTN-connected) voice network emerge? Will it start out as hobbyists setting up Asterisk Open Source PBX boxes connected to their home POTS line? Will some form of ENUM allow least cost routing to boxes sitting in basements and garages around the world? If an ITSP in Europe can setup an Asterisk box with PSTN access and start offering US phone numbers and vice-versa, will global number plans become obsolete? What effect will the ridiculously low barrier to entry for VoIP have on telecommunications?"

Comments

Idiot

[Matt - Duke '05]

If you're deadset on making yourself look like an idiot by quoting Eminem on a Slashdot story, at least get the lyrics correct. The proper wording word be:

The FCC won't let [VoIP] be, or let [VoIP] be [VoIP].

Given this, the quote has absolutely no relation whatsoever to the topic at hand and you sound like a jackass. So, why'd you quote Eminem again?

Something does need to be regulated

[dbrower]

As I said in a previous VOIP topic posting, there are reasons to regulate, and the point to do it will be a the voip to phone number gateway points. You can yell all you want that business models aren't guaranteed. But, in fact, we the people, through our duly authorized representative, did grant monopolies at regulated rates of return to phone companies. If was are going to break the monopopy by allowing unregulated voip, will will somehow need to figure out how the phone companies are going to amortize (eg: write off) depreciation on the physical plant that was scheduled over 25 years; then figure out how to have a viable ISP business that is not riding on the back of the non-existant regulated monopolies.

Expect prices for IP access to go up when this happens. Whatever the cause, the providers will always find a reason to raise the prices if they can.

-dB