Ah, the sweet promises of a new technology. A recent report by the New Millennium Research Council, an organization of academics and private business experts formed in 1999 to foster policy research on telecommunications and technology, takes on issues associated with the potential of voice over Internet Protocol technology.
The report basically is a well-thought-out 24 pages of how the Federal Communications Commission should and should not regulate VoIP services. Here are four basic tenants the council agreed on:
1. The FCC should develop a clear national VoIP framework, not a patchwork of state regulations;
2. The commission should subject VoIP applications that are like telecom services to certain telephony rules, keeping in mind that such a young industry should not have to meet all requirements;
3. The FCC should regulate all VoIP service providers equally, and;
4. The commission should ensure that statutory social responsibilities like E911, CALEA and universal service are met.
Twenty years ago, wireless telephony was a new technology. As it grew from being a luxury service enjoyed by a few to a necessity used by the masses, it also has had to come under more stringent regulation, even though wireless service is the most competitive telecom service currently offered. Indeed, the wireless industry has often had to walk a fine line in those four basic areas in its short existence. (Remember that wired telephony is more than 100 years old.)
For example, even as the wireless industry tried to get many of its rules under a national framework, state regulators and congressional leaders, increasingly dissatisfied with industry, have been stepping up efforts to control wireless carriers, either through lawsuits, bills of rights or antenna-siting measures. A carrier offering service in 50 states should not have to comply with 50 different sets of rules, but they could.
Likewise, while wireless carriers have to contribute to the nation’s Universal Service Fund, they have not been able to get much in return from it. And finally, it wasn’t until Dale Hatfield pointed out that public safety answering points also dropped the ball on E911 that real headway was made on the issue instead of just the continuous finger pointing at industry.
The FCC should embrace the suggestions of the NMRC as a framework to proceed on VoIP development. However, as the lines between telecommunications and information services continue to blur, perhaps new regulations are needed for all industries. The NMRC thinks so. It likely will be the FCC’s biggest challenge ever.
