|
|
• • 102 PUC
VOIP Joins FCC Rulings
• • April
15, 2005 / California's was the first of several state
utility commissions to appeal the FCC order, leading to the
combining of the cases in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco. Its decision to withdraw is likely
to cause delays and a move to another
circuit.
• • The largely unregulated VOIP technology
sends voice, data and video in packets like e-mail over
high-speed, or broadband, lines. In addition to start-ups
such as Vonage Holdings Corp., big phone companies use VOIP
to power parts of their own
networks.
• • In reversing its decision of five
months ago, the PUC also voted to file papers supporting the
FCC's rule on broadband telephone calling and ceded
oversight to the federal government-- a move that critics
fear will leave California customers with little recourse
for poor or faulty service.
• • The state Public Utilities Commission
voted 3 to 1 behind closed doors late last week to pull out
of its appeal of a Federal Communications Commission rule
designating so-called voice over Internet protocol as an
interstate service beyond state
control.
• • The federal rule is "at the center of
the most important national debate with regard to the
telecom industry: How do we treat new technologies?" said
PUC member Susan P. Kennedy, who pushed for the
votes.
• • Kennedy, who has advocated different
rules and a light touch on new technologies, has opposed
giving the states any significant role in regulating
broadband phone calls.
• • Commission President Michael R. Peevey
had other reasons to get out of the
case.
• • "That's a loser issue. VOIP is
obviously an interstate service," he said. "Technology is
constantly changing, and we can put our resources to better
use."
• • But Commissioner Geoffrey F. Brown, who
dissented, said the commission was heading the wrong
way.
• • "We are gradually abdicating any
control we have in telecom to the FCC," he
said.
• • Consumer groups contend that regulation
is needed more than ever as the changing landscape over the
next few years allows phone service to be delivered over
such technologies as high-speed wireless networks and power
lines.
• • "This is unbelievable," said Bob
Finkelstein, executive director of the Utility Reform
Network in San Francisco. "The trouble is we have activist
regulators far keener on representing the industry than the
state's consumers."
• • With conventional telephone service
eventually changing over to Internet protocol technology, he
said, the PUC is "creating a risk that basic phone service
in the future won't be regulated."
• • The commissioners' votes "essentially
say they think the commission is irrelevant, which is a
tremendous disappointment," said Janee Briesemeister,
telecom policy analyst for Consumers Union, publisher of
Consumer Reports magazine.
• • Support in Congress for the FCC's
position on VOIP reaches across party lines, partly because
anyone around the world can offer the service and customers
can use it anywhere.
• • Critics say the rule is one more effort
by the Bush administration to preempt states from regulating
basic services such as phones and power. States, they
maintain, must have the authority to act on consumer
complaints about essential
services.
• • Peevey said he would like to create an
overall telecom regulatory plan, much as the commission
already has done in energy regulation. Such a plan, he said,
also would help to foster competition for more ways to
deliver high-speed Internet access, a requirement for all
broadband phone service. Currently, most consumers have only
two choices: a local phone carrier or a cable
company.
• • But he said the window for creating
such a plan was short-- "this year or next." He also
acknowledged, though, that there might be little left to
regulate by then if more of the nation's phone service moves
to VOIP.
///
ByLines:
Editors Note
More Articles
• Converging
News 162005 / TeleCom Buy Outs and Asset Seizure
Boom
Respectfully
Submitted
Josie
Cory
Publisher/Editor
TVI Magazine
TVI Magazine,
tviNews.net, YES90, Your Easy Searh, Associated Press,
Reuters, BBC, LA Times, NY Times, VRA's D-Diaries, Industry
Press Releases, They Said It and SmartSearch were used in
compiling and ascertaining this Yes90 news report.
©1956-2005. Copyright. All rights
reserved by: TVI Publications, VRA TelePlay Pictures, xingtv
and Big Six Media Entertainments. Tel/Fax: 323
462.1099.
We Preserve The
Moment
Return
ˆ
To Top
|
|
We Preserve The Moment
Yes90
tviNews
•
102 PUC VOIP
Joins FCC Rulings
/
Ted Turner
Television International Magazine's Person Of The
Week POW58 •
162005 -
/ Ted Turner / Front Cover Vol
49-POW58
•
TVI 61 Cover
Photo: Feature
Story
•
102PUCVOIPJoinsFCCRule.htm
NEWS
Convergence - 16th Week of 162005
/
106FCCKingburyReport.htm Smart90, s90tv, lookradio,
tvimagazine, dv90, vratv, xingtv, Ddiaries, nbs100,
Look Radio, Josie Cory,
Television
With No Borders
|
|
|
|
Legal
Notices Copyright
Information
How
Do We Do Business?
Tel/Fax
323 462-1099
SEND
E-MAIL
Return
ˆ
To
Top
|
|
|
