Federal Appeals Court Sides With VoIP Providers

gollum123 writes "AP reports that the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by a lower court that A Minnesota agency may not regulate calls through VoIP as it does calls through traditional phone lines. 'The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission had argued that VoIP companies were providing phone-like service and therefore should be regulated as phone companies are. But those businesses said they provide an information service rather than a telecommunications service. This follows the FCC saying that VOIP cannot be regulated using the same rules as traditional phone.'"

Comments

Re:Laws?

[techno-vampire]

Why does every government agency seek to enlarge it's power by regulating new things?

It's simple. The more things they regulate, the more power they have, the more people they need and the bigger their budgets get.

Re:Doesn't stop them...

[jdreed1024]

if they were willing to point it out to each customer prioring to signing them up, that courts have ruled that it's not phone service, and that they have no recourse through the utility commission should it have

Exactly. This is not entirely good. It's good in that it gives the VoIP providers a bit more flexibility in what they can do, and where they can offer service, and what service they can offer. By the same token, there's nothing to stop a fly-by-nite VoIP provider from scewing everyone over.

Some states have regulations that currently prevent phone companies from turning service off completely in the case of non-payment (ie: you can still call 911). And they allow you to dispute a portion of the bill and pay the undisputed portion and still have no service cutoff until the dispute is resolved. Those regulations are among those that states would not be allowed to enforce under this ruling.

However, all the courts said is that you don't get to regulate VoIP in the same method as phone service. There's nothing to stop the states from setting up new regulations for "information providers", etc.

VoIP not really a phone - more reasons

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

1. Phones can work without power, as long as the switch is alive.
2. A normal phone can be a simple piece of electronics not subject to computer failure modes.
3. Phone service is circuit switched and reliable. VoIP is packet switched, and thus has much less reliability.
4. 911 doesn't work well over VoIP.
5. Even if it did, problems 1-3 would make it something you can't rely on.
6. People should always have a land line for emergencies. If an emergency occurs and they onle have a VoIP and/or cell and they might suffer tragedy.

Loss of phone service is expected to endanger life in many cases. It needs to be regulated.

Loss of VoIP should not be expected to do so, except if people choose to rely on it and not have a landline.