Supported by at least 2 Bell companies, USTA urged the FCC in comments to leave the IP-enabled services market free of economic regulation. But some consumer groups argued the Commission should subject VoIP to Title II regulation to protect consumers, and use its authority to exempt such services from unnecessary regulations. The Local Govt. Coalition reminded the FCC it had “no power to adopt a comprehensive scheme for regulating information services independent of Title II, Title III or Title VI” of the Communications Act. Meanwhile, states pressed for a technology-neutral functional approach to VoIP oversight. “Regulators should not be choosing technology winners and losers,” NARUC Gen. Counsel Brad Ramsay told us. More comments were expected after our deadline Fri.
Year-long talks aimed at working out an agreement on access charges through the Intercarrier Compensation Forum (ICF) have collapsed for now, with the formal departure Wed. of several key members -- including BellSouth, which initiated discussions with AT&T last year. Many of the discussions had been at BellSouth’s Washington office.
Advanced telecom capabilities such as broadband are being deployed to all Americans in “a reasonable and timely fashion,” telecom and cable operators said in comments to the FCC Mon. The comments were filed in response to the 4th inquiry launched by the Commission under Sec. 706 of the Telecom Act earlier this year (CD March 12 p6). The Act requires that the Commission conclude the inquiry and report to Congress within 180 days.
Hours before the Senate took up legislation seeking to ban Internet access taxes, President Bush promoted the ban as a way to stimulate broadband deployment (see separate story, this issue). The Senate late Mon. was prepared to take a procedural vote as the first step toward consideration of S- 150 by Sen. Allen (R-Va.). S-150’s main opponent, Sen. Alexander (R-Tenn.), said Senate Majority Leader Frist (R- Tenn.) has been urging compromise for months, but said talks appeared to have failed: “We simply have a difference of opinion.”
Giving VoIP a “new voice in Washington and in states,” several VoIP providers led by the VON Coalition officially announced a group to encourage a public policy that refrains from applying traditional telecom regulation to Internet voice communications. The group, called The Voice Over Internet Coalition, includes AT&T, Callipso, Convedia, iBasis, Intel, Intrado, ITXC, MCI, PointOne and Texas Instruments. The group, which has unofficially operated a few weeks (CD Dec 10 p4), announced new members and expanded principles Mon.
Sprint Chmn. Gary Forsee called on the FCC to bring “much-needed clarity by promptly ruling that phone-to-phone VoIP should pay access charges.” Speaking at a Sprint investors meeting Wed. in N.Y., he said his company would take a high profile in addressing VoIP issues this year, pushing regulators to eliminate regulatory uncertainty: “Our perspective is to take prudent positions on initiatives such as UNE-P and VoIP to minimize the effect of regulatory mixed messages.” He expressed concern that “regulatory uncertainty” could interfere with the industry’s moving forward: “What this industry needs from regulation is clear, rational rules, especially surrounding VoIP and intercarrier compensation. Right now it’s a mess.”
The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service appears to be “very much divided” in its effort to seek improvements in the Universal Service Fund (USF)and, as a result, probably will present the FCC with some “conflicting views,” Western Wireless CEO John Stanton said Tues. in an interview with Communications Daily. Even in areas where there’s a majority view in the Joint Board’s recommendations, there probably will be an “active minority” view, perhaps leading to divisions at the FCC as well, Stanton predicted.
More than 10 voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) providers led by the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition are getting together to create an unprecedented group to encourage a public policy that refrains from applying traditional telecom regulation to Internet voice communications. The ad hoc coalition, expected to be announced formally before the end of the year, will try to form voluntary agreements on some key common carrier obligations, such as universal service, E911, disability access and law enforcement monitoring of VoIP calls. “These legitimate concerns can be addressed without imposing heavy regulation on VoIP and… if they are addressed successfully the political pressure to regulate VoIP will dissipate,” said VON Coalition Chmn. Tom Evslin, who represents the ad hoc group.
The Kan. Corporation Commission (KCC) opened a docket to review its procedures for reporting and recording state universal service fund revenue. All carriers are required to contribute to the plan and must report annually on how much of their contributions have been recovered from customers. The new investigation responds to KCC staff concerns that some carriers with monthly flat-rate calling plans weren’t reporting contribution recovery on a consistent basis. Consumer groups also had raised a question of whether customers were being burdened by overstated fund assessments. The staff also wants repeal of the current USF contribution exemption given to one-way paging services. Intervenors in the proceeding (Case 03-GIMT-932-GIT) must register by May 23. Comments are due July 2 and replies July 29.
FCC legal advisers said Wed. they were aware of concerns by rural ILECs that universal service money was shrinking while requests for it were growing with the arrival of competitive carriers in rural areas. But they also told members of the National Telecom Co-op Assn. (NTCA) that those were very difficult problems to solve because the Telecom Act encouraged competition as well as universal service. The advisers told NTCA that numerous universal service issues were teed up at the Commission, including what services should be funded and how the support money should be raised, and they wouldn’t be easy to solve. NTCA members were in town for their annual Legislative & Policy Conference.