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Microcap & Penny Stocks : FRANKLIN TELECOM (FTEL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stan Aronow who wrote (25280)	1/15/1998 8:06:00 PM
From: sdheart	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 41046

ARTICLE in tonight WSJ Posted without permission. January 15, 1998 Internet Telephony Isn't Subject To EU Rules, Commission Rules Dow Jones Newswires BRUSSELS -- Phone calls made over the Internet aren't yet sophisticated enough or common enough to make them subject to European Union rules governing phone companies, the European Commission decided. In a statement issued Thursday, the commission, the European Union's executive body, said it will review its decision by 2000 to determine whether such services have become the equivalent of regular telephone service. "With growing sophistication, certain Internet telephony providers will qualify as providers of voice telephony, and therefore be subject to the regulatory regime applicable to voice telephony in the future," the Commission said. Voice phone calls over the Internet are a developing industry that has the potential to offer up to 80% savings on regular international phone calls. The Commission, which has imposed strict rules on EU member countries to ensure that their voice telephone markets become competitive starting this year, held public discussions last year to determine whether voice telephone service over the Internet should be subject to the same regulations. The Commission stressed that its decision partially stems from a desire to avoid stifling developments in Internet voice technology by overregulation. The Commission listed four main criteria that Internet phone service will have to meet before it deserves equal treatment to regular phone service. The service would have to be publicly available, offered commercially, provided to and from public switched network termination points on a fixed network and transmit speech both directly and in real time. sdheart