FCC Fines Company for Blocking Access to VoIP

peg0cjs writes "According to PCPro, the FCC has handed out a $15,000 fine to Madison River Communications Corp for blocking access to VoIP calls. The action is seen as a warning to other telcos not to prevent the growth of VoIP over their networks. The complaint was made to the FCC by two companies Vonage Holdings and Nuvio, which specialise in VoIP services. It appears that Vonage CEO Jeffrey Citron was willing to act on his earlier tirade about VoIP blocking." From the article: "The action is seen as a warning to other telcos not to prevent the growth of VoIP over their networks. Many of these companies see VoIP as a threat to their landline revenues as calls made over the internet can be made to anywhere in the world for the price of a local call."

Comments

Re:15 grand to a telco company...

[Quasar1999]

True, it's peanuts... but no one said it would stay at that low a fine... do it again, and we'll up the fine... just like with a kid, slap the wrists, then the ass, then nail them over the head with a frying pan... As a side note, I'm not a parent, so take my example with a grain of salt

Re:Good

[aesiamun]

Why?

I am limited in my bandwidth from my provider. I can do whatever I want with that bandwidth, providing it's within the law and the agreement that I signed when I became a customer of my ISP.

If I want high quality lower compressed telephone calls, and I'm not breaking any agreements, then i should be able to do that.

I pay for this bandwidth, it's better that I make a call and use my bandwidth than become one of the many who are spending bandwidth trading kiddie porn.

Only fools block VoIP

[Jailbrekr]

The smart ones throttle back the quality of the connection. Thanks to the bursty nature of the internet, they can get away with making the quality total shit for 3rd party VoIP providers, while allcocating the necessary bandwidth and priority to their own VoIP services.