SAN FRANCISCO -- The growing support among regulators and companies, including ILECs, to subject all voice traffic connecting to the PSTN to access charges is misguided and doomed, Cal. PUC Comr. Susan Kennedy said Fri. “This is certainly the simplest path… because it largely maintains the status quo, keeps funding for social programs intact and leaves pure Internet telephony alone.”
Sprint asked the Nev. PUC for permission to charge twice for data retrieval under certain circumstances where a primary 911 answering point transfers a call to a secondary 911 point (Case 04-2012). That situation would occur when a primary point like a police dept. transferred a call to a secondary center such as a fire dept. If the fire dept. queries the Sprint E-911 database directly instead of using the primary center’s customer information, Sprint wants to charge both centers for the data transfer.
Colo. Gov. Bill Owens (R) signed a bill giving immunity to “211” human services referral providers for damage suits arising from their activities. The new law (HB-1065) said the Colo. 211 Collaborative and the referral service providers can’t be sued for civil damages for injuries, deaths or losses resulting from any action or failure to act by the 211 provider. The law confers 211 immunity protection similar to that given to 911 emergency dispatch providers. Meanwhile, a Colo. House committee narrowly advanced HB-1345, which calls for making switching local exchange carriers as simple, cheap and swift as swapping long distance carriers. The bill was amended in the Transportation & Energy Committee to exclude rural carriers and passed out by one vote. It would direct the Colo. PUC to review change methods and promulgate new rules.
The FCC’s emphasis on VoIP is fine but the FCC should first make sure the underlying broadband infrastructure is deployed throughout the country, FCC Comr. Copps said Wed. at a symposium sponsored by Mich. State U.’s Quello Center. “No matter how enthusiastic the rhetoric [about VoIP], IP technologies will only reach their potential if the infrastructure is there,” he said. “We should be thinking larger thoughts,” Copps said: “If we ever needed a national conference on how to deal with disruptive technology it’s now.”
FCC Chmn. Powell endorsed reform of the Telecom Act during his testimony Tues. before the Senate Commerce Committee. He told the committee regulation of new technology such as VoIP couldn’t be resolved under the Telecom Act of 1996, and legislative reform should occur. Powell said the current law wouldn’t allow such services as VoIP to be “harmonized” and would make it difficult to resolve intercarrier compensation. “The days are numbered on the way we're doing this under the current statute,” Powell said: “I do believe there is going to have to be a statute in the future that recognizes these dramatic technical changes.”
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.
FCC Chmn. Powell expressed optimism Mon. technology could address the challenges of providing Enhanced 911 services on broadband networks offering VoIP applications. “We do have that rare opportunity to join hands and develop the solutions early, before our citizens and our consumers are using these services in overwhelming numbers,” he told a National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) forum in Washington.
An audit report by the N.Y. State Comptroller’s Office says the state legislature’s diversions of money from the state wireless E-911 fund have hurt efforts to spread wireless E-911 location capabilities statewide. The report said 21 of the state’s 62 counties in 2003 could locate a wireless user who called 911 -- up from just one county in 2002. But the report said the legislature’s diversion of 41% of wireless E-911 surcharge revenue ($40.8 million) into the state’s general fund Aug. 2002-July 2003 had slowed the project. The report noted pending federal legislation that would stop diversions of wireless E-911 funds if the state wanted federal E-911 support funding.
With the Senate Commerce Committee preparing to examine VoIP this week, Sen. Sununu (R-N.H.) told us he believed the FCC should classify VoIP as an information service, which would be subject to lighter FCC regulation. Sununu has said he would introduce a VoIP bill soon that would call for that classification, as well as preempt much state and local jurisdiction over VoIP. “I don’t know if it’s clear that the FCC has jurisdiction in all cases,” Sununu said. “There’s a lack of clarity in the statute. Clearly, it’s interstate commerce and legislation should clearly define VoIP as an information service and establish a regulatory framework.”
E. LANSING, Mich. -- FCC Comr. Kathleen Abernathy told a Mich. State U. audience some regulation of VoIP service will be necessary, but she advocated a “light touch” through “rules that are narrowly tailored to achieve specific public policies.” She said the light regulatory approach taken with wireless services enabled wireless to thrive and suggested a similar minimalist approach toward VoIP might enable this service to thrive.