Internet phone regulations considered
By Johnathan D. Salant
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Is a phone call over the Internet different from one over wires?
How the Federal Communications Commission answers that question will determine whether Internet calls face the same taxes and regulations as calls using conventional telephones.
At issue is whether phone calls made over the Internet should be subject to fees to pay for 911 emergency services or bringing telephone service to poor and rural areas, schools and libraries, just as conventional calls are, and whether law enforcement officials should be able to tap and trace Internet calls the way they can monitor regular phone conversations.
Conventional phone companies such as Verizon and AT&T and new high-tech upstarts already are shifting calls away from wires and switches, which transmit voices, to computers, which convert sounds into data and transmit them along with e-mails, movies-on-demand and Web pages. An FCC task force will study the issue.
"We are dramatically changing the way we communicate in this country and around the globe," Chairman Michael Powell said, "and we are challenged to adjust our policies and rules not only to accommodate, but to facilitate, this process of change."
Known as "Voice over Internet Protocol," or VOIP, the technology allows a user to plug a conventional phone into a special jack and use high-speed broadband Internet connections to transmit calls. While many calls rely on the conventional networks to connect to a particular home, others bypass the telephone system of wires and switches.
The new technology is growing. Time Warner Cable has signed up more than 7,500 customers since it rolled out its telephone service over high-speed Internet lines in Portland, Me., in May. BellSouth Corp. began offering Internet phone service in October to its business customers. Verizon also offers some businesses the chance to make Internet calls and is preparing to offer similar services to consumers using its broadband DSL connections.
These new providers can offer service cheaper than conventional telephone companies. The phone conversations account for only a small part of the traffic on their lines, sharing space with video-on-demand, high-speed Internet connections, e-mails and online games.
"Voice is just another application that rides on our broadband platform," said John Billock, chief operating officer of Time Warner Cable.
Arguing against regulation, high-tech company officials said that while a handful of telephone companies have a near-monopoly control over the local networks, and therefore government controls are needed, no companies exercise dominance of Internet phone service.
"It's monopoly that calls out for regulation. We don't have it here," said Tom Evslin, chief executive officer of ITXC Corp., a Princeton, N.J.-based company that transmits international calls over the Internet.
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said it is wrong for Internet calls not to be treated the same as conventional phone calls for provision of 911 emergency services, paying into the universal service fund or helping law enforcement track calls.
"Such 'hands off' treatment could mean we are undercutting the safety of consumers, law enforcement and national security, and the integrity of the underlying network and the universal service funding mechanism," Adelstein said.
