POWELL PLEADS FOR LESS REGULATION OF INTERNET TELEPHONY—AGAIN
Using a speech at the National Press Club as his latest platform to warn against too much regulation of IP telephony, FCC Chmn. Powell Wed. challenged proregulation forces to prove such action was needed. “The burden should be on the government to show if regulation is needed, not the other way around,” he told journalists and communications industry officials. While the speech didn’t break new ground, it led one audience member to note privately that Powell had repeated this message in several speeches recently, possibly indicating the need to convince industry officials and other regulators, including other members of the Commission, of the wisdom of light-touch regulation.
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Powell offered 2 warnings to regulators: (1) “Do no harm” to VoIP. Govt. officials “dealing with technology they don’t fully understand,” can slow the rollout of VoIP by raising regulatory compliance costs, he said. (2) “Don’t shove the round Internet into a square hole” by trying to “dumb down” new networks to fit current regulation. “To regulate in the image of phone service is to limit the potential” of IP telephony, Powell said. It’s important to understand VoIP “is an application in contrast to a service,” he said: “Internet voice offers great advantages to the consumer.”
Govt. and industry should to work together to come up with ways to assure universal service funding, E-911 capability and other social needs aren’t sacrificed as VoIP service grows, Powell said. He said he planned to host a “Solutions Summit” at which parties could talk about ways to tackle the problem. He said later he didn’t have a date in mind yet for the summit. The Telecom Industry Assn., which represents equipment manufacturers, said in a statement that its members were “committed to working with the FCC to [develop] creative solutions for addressing legitimate policy issues, including the needs of public safety and law enforcement.”
Asked when the agency might release a proposed VoIP order, Powell said he would like to see it in the first quarter of 2004, in Feb. if possible, “but there are 4 other people on the Commission” who might affect that timeline. On other issues, Powell was asked: (1) What could be done to promote broadband networks. He said current rules had to be clarified “so companies have honest expectations” and “at some point, Congress will have to redo major aspects of the statute.” (2) Which regulators -- state or federal -- had jurisdiction over IP telephony. Powell responded that the jurisdiction was “primarily federal.” “I've never read anything about the Internet that doesn’t say it’s global,” he said. Several states have taken steps to regulate VoIP providers as phone companies. (3) As for the timeline for action on efforts to eliminate interference to public safety spectrum from Nextel and other 800 MHz cellular providers, Powell said the agency had been “struggling to put together a plan” and was “very close to the end of it.” He predicted orders could be issued “in the next couple of months.”
BellSouth said Powell’s VoIP comments “made it clear that it takes more than use of the word Internet to qualify a regular telephone call for the type of hands-off regulatory policy” that helped the Internet grow. Its comment appeared to be aimed at AT&T’s petition for lessened access charge payments for phone-to-phone Internet calling. BellSouth said the service targeted by AT&T wasn’t VoIP but rather was the result of “stenciling the word ‘Internet’ onto a magic wand and waving that wand over a normal phone call.” AT&T responded that BellSouth had “mischaracterized” AT&T’s technology: “This is truly new investment that should not be thrown into the Bells’ old inflated access rules bucket,” AT&T said.