Slashdot Mirror
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?"
Who can and can't host Goatse content?
Great philosopher Eminem? Why not just jump off tall buildings repeatedly?
DR. ADAMS S.
DIRECTOR, PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION,
NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION.
FALOMO OFFICE COMPLEX, IKOYI - LAGOS.
Sir,
A REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE / CO-OPERATION
It is my great pleasure in writing you this letter on behalf of my colleagues and I.I have decided to seek a confidential cooperation with you in the execution of the deal described here for the benefit of all parties involved and hope that you will keep it as top secret because of the nature of the business and the personalities involved.
Though we have never met, but you were introduced by a friend of mine Dr. Arthur Altobelli, saying you are very reliable and worthy of trust.
Within the Ministry of Petroleum Resources where I work as a Director, Project implementation and with the cooperation of four other top officials, we have in our possession as overdue payment bills totaling Eighteen Million, Three Hundred and Sixty Thousand U.S. Dollars (US$18,360,000.00) which we want to transfer abroad with the assistance and cooperation of a trusted foreign firm or individual who will receive the said fund on our behalf into any account provided to receive such funds. We are handicapped in this deal because the Civil Service code of Conduct does not allow public servants like us to operate offshore account, hence your importance in the whole transaction.
The amount (US$18.36M) represent a certain percentage of the total contract value executed on behalf of my Ministry by a foreign contracting firm which we the officials over-invoiced deliberately. Though the actual contract cost have been paid to the original contractor, leaving the balance in the tune of the said amount which we have gotten approval to remit by Telegraphic Transfer (T.T) to Foreign Bank Account you will provide by filling in an application through my Ministry for the transfer of rights and privileges of the former contractor to you.
Since the present new civilian government of my country is determined to pay every foreign contractor all debts owed, so as to maintain good relationship with foreign government and non-government financial agencies, we have decided to include our bill for approval with the cooperation of some officials from the relevant government Ministries which will be involved in the payment processes. We are seeking your assistance inproviding a vital account into which we can remit this money by acting as ourmain partner and trustee or acting as the original contractor. This we can do by swapping of account and changing of beneficiary and other forms of documentation upon application for claim to reflect the payment and approvals to be secured on behalf of you.
I have the authority of my partners involved to propose to you 30% of the US$18.36 Million if you should accept to assist us, 60% for us and 10% for taxation and miscellaneous expenses. The business is 100% safe on your part, but you have to keep it confidential. You should not disclose, or discuss this proposal with anybody no matter how close, for security reasons.
Also, your area of specialization is not a hindrance to the successful execution of this transaction. I have reposed my confidence in you and hope that you will not disappoint me. Please respond through the email address. It is urgent you indicate your willingness in assisting us so that I will direct you on what next to do. You should include your direct telephone and fax numbers in your response.
Please treat as extremely confidential.
Thanks for your anticipated assistance.
Yours sincerely,
DR. Adams
We may finally get fair pricing for long distance. I don't really see the point of long distance fees. It is not like the phone company had to walk the call there. Voice calls are routed along side IP packets, the only added cost to IP traffic is some grandfather clause letting Telco companies still gouge us. Besides, in Canada at least, most Telco networks were already paid for by people owned companies, so I do not accept cost recovery as an answer either.
hello anonymous coward... what's happening?
uhhhhh... we got sort of a problem here... yeaah... you appearantly didn't put one of the new GNAA advertisements on your first post.
mmmh... yeahh.. you see, we're putting the GNAA advertisements on all first posts now before they go out. did you see the memo about this?
so if you could just go ahead and make sure you do that from now on, that would be great.
and i'll go ahead and make sure you get another copy of that text. mmmmkay?
wow. AC screaming "Government conspiracy!" gets modded 5 Insightful. Where is my Metamod?
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
Eh... there's really no better way to earn karma on slashdot than crying about a government conspiracy... hell you could write a program to automate it.
Proponents of USF will point to the benefits to schools and poor people. But what of the unseen? What was not purchased because of these fees? What job was not created because a product was not bought? What medical invention was not created because the job was not found?
There are millions of dollars of wealth given to people or organizations who could probably obtain the service if they really wanted to. Rural people already pay less in rent than city folk. Poor people have other choices for being in communication with others. When was the last time that calling the police stopped a crime in progress? Do we really need subsidized 911? Government schools were having trouble graduating kids that can read before the internet was mainstream. Do we really need subsidized computers in the classroom?
If the services this fund provides are so important, wouldn't people be willing to donate to the fund voluntarily? Wouldn't people be willing to provide something in exchange to have this service? It's not a market failure when people don't act on your ideal. That's called a failure to persuade.
Let's honor the right of people to set their own terms for talking. Don't force the issue through an agent with a gun. Keep VoIP free of regulations, fees, and taxes.