Tuesday, May 24, 2005

E911 Ruling Uncovers Questions over VOIP's Classification

Finally--it looks like people are starting to get it.

Robyn Weissman writes a very nice piece over on eWeek about how the FCC initially "dropped the ball" on the whole VoIP issue. My favorite quotes from her "news analysis":

"...the FCC dropped the ball to a large extent by not making the distinction between traditional telephone service and services offered by VOIPs.

"The FCC regarded VOIP offerings officially as an information service rather than phone service, which meant VOIP providers could sidestep the sorts of regulatory requirements that traditional ILECs (incumbent local exchange carriers) and later, CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers) who entered local markets after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 have had to follow.


"These stipulations include paying taxes to state governments and following certain processes to certify in every state in which the company does business."

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