Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FCC Rules On Pulver Free World Dialup

Posted by timothy on from the no-brainers-are-easy-for-the-fcc dept.

An anonymous reader writes " Light Reading is reporting that the verdict is in on Pulver's FWD. 'The first big decision was a victory for VoIP proponents. The commission ruled that Pulver.com's Free World Dialup VOIP service is an information service, not a telecommunications service. The decision was based largely on the analysis that it doesn't fit the 1996 Telecom Act's definition of a telecommunications service.' To me this was a no-brainer on the part of the FCC. Let's see if they get the rest right too."

2 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why VOIP is not a communication thing by oldave · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Telephone companies have been regulated because they have traditionally been monopolies.

    The main reason is that it simply makes no sense financially for another company to hang wires to the same houses.

    VOIP doesn't have the same financial implications, and will introduce competition, particularly in the long distance markets.

    Television (broadcast - cable and satellite are different animals), on the other hand, uses a finite resource - electromagnetic spectrum. Channel assignments are regulated, which makes sense. I've never been comfortable with content regulation, but that's a discussion for other threads.

  2. The Day I became an Object Noun by jeffpulver · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Looking back, this has been one of the best weeks in my life, at least from the perspective of my life experiences in business.

    During the FCC February 2004 Meeting, while agenda item #4, the FWD Petition was being granted, I gave up counting how many times the name "Pulver" was mentioned in the proceeding.

    After thinking about this, I believe we witnessed the transition where my name became an object noun which will be associated with the petition that I filed on behalf of Free World Dialup on February 5, 2003.