02-16-2004, 02:53 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 534
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FCC Ruling Frees "Pure" VoIP From Regulations
Last week, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that Internet telephony provider pulver.com is not subject to the myriad regulations to which traditional telephone companies must adhere. pulver.com provides the Free World Dialup service that allows users to have voice conversations over the Internet. These voice over IP (VoIP) calls are not placed using regular phone equipment and subscribers are given a unique ID number rather than a 10-digit telephone number.
The FCC also agreed to provide regulatory guidance on a wider range of VoIP issues. Most importantly, it will decide what stance to take with service providers that mix VoIP and traditional switched-circuit phone networks. Currently, many long distance calls use VoIP at some point along their route. AT&T is asking the FCC to rule its use of VoIP in routing long distance calls as Internet telephony. This would allow AT&T to avoid access charges paid to local providers.
There is potentially a lot of money at stake in the FCC's rulings. The major telephone carriers want to Internet protocols because they are cheaper and more efficient than the regular telephone system. The move would be a large cost savings that, hopefully, would find its way to customers. States and municipalities, though, could face serious revenue shortfalls as more and more telecommunications tax money is lost to the Internet.
What does all this mean for cell phones? The immediate answer is, "not much." Depending on how the regulatory mess is worked out, we might have a new way to connect and place phone calls. I've worked with clients whose entire internal phone systems are VoIP. It would be great to expose them over WiFi. If that happened, it would certainly eliminate my problem of not getting a GSM signal in my house. Phones could be built so that they switched between networks. Around town, I could be connected to a cell tower. When I walk in the front door, an 802.11 radio in the phone would connect to the broadband Internet connection in my house. Oh, the possibilities!
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David McNamee
Office Platform Specialist, Microsoft Corp.
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