The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have decided that individual states cannot impose additional restrictions on VoIP service providers. This follows an attempt by the Minneapolis public utilities commission to force Vonage to abide by the same rules as existing telephony service providers. The FCC overruled deeming that this stance was “inconsistent with the FCC’s deregulatory policies”. More information on the reg. This is a fascinating story as the implications of this ruling are unclear. The FCC’s policies to-date regarding VoIP are supportive but not coherent. It’s very much a wait-and-see approach rather than a strategy promoting adoption of VoIP while reasonably compensating existing operators for the user of their network. This kind of sustainable policy is required to ensure that VoIP services are deployed in a safe and responsible manner with the reliability and security that users expect.
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