CANADA CONSIDERS REGULATING VoIP
Canada’s telecom regulator said Wed. it sees little difference between traditional phone service and VoIP, suggesting they should be subject to the same regulations: “Voice communications services using IP …have characteristics that are functionally the same as circuit- switched voice telecommunications services,” the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said in a notice launching a public review on the issue.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The commission said its views are based on a “technology-neutral” stance that looks at the service sold, not the technology: “Consistent with its principle of technological neutrality, it is the Commission’s preliminary view that its existing regulatory framework should apply to VoIP services.” If this view is applied, any VoIP service in Canada would be subject to tariffs and would need to provide 911 emergency access. The service also would pay a contribution fee of about 1% of sales to subsidize rural phone service.
The CRTC also noted IP phone service would be a factor in easing the rules, such as price caps and bundling restrictions, that regulate large telcos in the local phone business. CRTC Chmn. Charles Dalfen said the commission would be “very happy” to deregulate local phone service if conditions were right.
A decision to regulate VoIP could affect U.S.-based companies that sell plans in Canada, such as Vonage, 8x8, and VoicePulse. The country’s smaller telcos such as Primus were pleased with the preliminary views that they saw levelling the playing field and letting them compete better with former monopolies BCE and Telus. But the big telcos, which had hoped IP would bypass the current regulatory framework, considered the commission’s views “Dickensian” -- out of the 19th- century.
CRTC called for comments on a regulatory framework for VoIP by April 28. Public meetings are planned May 19-20 in Gatineau, Quebec. Dalfen said he expected a final decision this year.