Ray, This ACTA pettition could end up being a major "fly in the oinment" for all of these efforts!
FCC PETITIONED TO STOP MISUSE OF THE INTERNET!
WASHINGTON, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The America's Carriers
Telecommunication Association (ACTA), a trade association of competitive,
long distance carriers today petitioned the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to stop companies from selling software and hardware
products that enable use of the Internet to voice long distance services.
A growing number of companies are selling software programs with ancillary
hardware options that enable a computer to transmit voice conversations.
This, in fact, creates the ability to "by-pass" local, long distance and
international carriers and allows for calls to be made for virtually "no
cost." For example, on-line service providers generally charge users around
$10.00 for five hours of access and then around $3.00 for each additional
hour. Five hours equals 300 minutes, divided by $10 is 3.3 cents per minute
. The average residential long distance telephone call costs about 22 cents
per minute or seven times as much.
The Internet is a unique form of wire communications. The rapid growth of
the Internet is stressing the capacities of the Internet itself. The
Internet access points are growing at 50% per month with subscriber growth
running close to 30% per month. Individuals are accessing the Internet for
more and more business applications such as market research, news, and
advertising with corporate web sites exploding, to say nothing about using
the Internet for E-mail applications.
ACTA submits that it is incumbent upon the FCC to exercise jurisdiction over
the use of the Internet for unregulated interstate and international
telecommunications services. Long distance and international carriers must
be approved by the FCC to operate and must file tariffs before both the FCC
and state public service commissions. All of these requirements are
stipulated in the Communications Act of 1934 and the Telecommunications Act
of 1996.
Technology may once again be surpassing government's ability to control its
proper use. However, the misuse of the Internet as a way to "by-pass" the
traditional means of obtaining long distance service could result in a
significant reduction of the Internet's ability to transport its ever
enlarging amount of data traffic. Therefore, ACTA has petitioned the FCC to
define the type of permissible communications which may be effected over the
Internet.
America's Carriers Telecommunication Association was founded in 1985 by
independent long distance companies to serve the needs of small businesses
and to advance the goals of more effective competition. ACTA's membership
today includes over 130 companies engaged in providing telecommunications
services.
-0- 3/4/96 /CONTACT: Charles H. Helein, general counsel,
703-714-1301, or Jennifer Durst-Jarrell, executive director, 407-332-9382,
both of America's Carriers Telecommunication Association/
CO: America's Carriers Telecommunication Association; Federal
Communications Commission ST: District of Columbia IN: TLS SU: |
