Prodigal Son

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...et_2&printer=1

FCC Chair to Seek Net Telephone Oversight

Tue Oct 19, 5:08 PM ET

By MARK JEWELL, AP Business Writer

BOSTON - FCC (news - web sites) Chairman Michael Powell said Tuesday that he would seek broad regulatory authority for the federal government over Internet-based telephone services to avoid


Powell told a receptive audience at an industry conference that letting states regulate Voice over Internet Protocol,or VoIP, services would lead to a patchwork of conflicting rules like those which have ensnarled the traditional phone business for decades.


To do so, Powell said, "is to dumb down the Internet back to the limited vision of government officials. That would be a tragedy."


After his speech, Powell told reporters he expected to introduce a proposal to the full Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) in less than a month, and definitely before a new Congress begins its session in January.


"We cannot avoid this question any longer," he said. "It is very likely that treatment of VOIP will have some of the farthest reaching consequences of anything this commission has done or will do."


Powell, whose office has been petitioned by Republican members of Congress to take action on the jurisdiction question, spoke two weeks before a presidential election that could jeopardize his position as FCC chairman.


The Republican was appointed to the commission by President Clinton (news - web sites) in 1997 and became chairman when President Bush (news - web sites) took office in 2001.


Powell cited a study by a research firm, The Yankee Group, that projects 1 million VoIP subscribers nationwide by year's end, compared with just 131,000 last year.


The technology "has ignited a fire under a stalled and depressed industry," Powell said, referring to traditional landline phone carriers.


Powell, who reiterated his belief in minimal regulation of VoIP services, said questions of its taxation and connectivity to 911 emergency assistance are best left to the federal government because the technology erodes geographic barriers.


Such barriers have led to a complex framework of regulations governing local and long-distance service for traditional landline phones.


While some issues involving voice quality and consumer accessibility remain to be worked out, VoIP service threatens to eventually overtake landline services by piggybacking on the existing, low-cost technology platform used for the Internet.


"There is no need to organize a regulatory regime around permits and prices and costs as we have done for nearly a century with common carriers," Powell added.

Confed999

Ahhhh, the wonders of big government.

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Prodigal Son

The Internet is killing the traditional phone companies. Unfortunately, their Washington lobbyists will most likely stave off the end for a couple of decades at consumers' expense.