FCC considers fees for phone-to-phone IP services
By John Rendleman, PC Week Online
04.13.98 4:45 pm ET
The Federal Communications Commission
told Congress late last Friday that it may
consider, on a case-by-case basis, whether
some "phone-to-phone" IP telephone and
fax services should be required to pay access fees for connecting to the
conventional telephone network to help pay for universal service
programs.
While noting that its intent is not to regulate the entire Internet or to
thwart the growth and innovation of IP-based services, the commission,
in a report delivered to Congress, said it will gather information on the
issue of subjecting certain IP telephony services to the regulatory fees.
"While a more definitive determination demands that we have a better
factual record, I note that even in this regard we are not proposing the
possibility of 'regulating the Internet' or imposing universal service
contribution obligations on Internet service providers," said FCC
Chairman William Kennard in a statement. "We are simply identifying a
very narrow category of service -- IP telephony -- that shares many of
the characteristics of a telecommunications service."
In tentatively classifying IP telephony services that use conventional
telephone devices and fax machines to place voice and fax calls over the
Internet using standard telephone numbering schemes, the FCC opened
the door to future commission proceedings in which the agency could
apply new fees to such services.
The report's conclusions draw a road map for future decisions resulting
from complaints by conventional telephone service providers, which
maintain that their networks are being used unfairly by IP telephony
providers, even though the report revealed some ambiguity at the
commission about the issue.
Even if IP telephony is classified as a telecommunications service for
regulatory purposes, FCC Commissioner Michael Powell said the
service "should not, in my current view, be required to contribute to
universal service."
According to Powell, "if innovative new IP services were all thrown into
the bucket of telecommunications carriers, we would drop a mountain of
regulations, and their attendant costs, on these services and perhaps
stifle innovation and competition in direct contravention of the
[Telecommunications Act of 1996]."
Taking the strongest stance against subjecting IP telephony providers to
such fees, Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said he opposes the
thrust of the report and characterized the agency's potential new policy
directives as "mere Band-Aids for a dying patient."
Furchtgott-Roth went on to say that "I am concerned that such rules
could be technically infeasible, could discourage further facilities
build-out and could seriously undermine our international
telecommunications policies." |
