Tuesday, November 11, 2003
The Fix is in on VOIP Regulation -- Reed Hundt
Has the FCC already decided how to regulate Internet Telephony?
Former FCC Chair Reed Hundt reads a recent letter from FCC Chairman Michael Powell to Senator Ron Wyden to indicate that the FCC is speeding headlong towards an unknown set of VOIP regulations with as little public comment as possible. Hundt spoke today (November 11, 2003) at Jeff Pulver's Wireless Internet Summit in Santa Clara CA.
I've known for several weeks that the FCC will be holding a hearing on Voice Over Internet Protocol on December 1. I had thought it would be like the delightfully informative and informal Rural Wireless Internet Service Provider Workshop that the FCC held on November 4. But this is not to be.
Apparently the December 1 meeting is to be a formal FCC hearing designed to legally circumvent the more normal, deliberative Notice of Inquiry process, which is designed to solicit, collect and consider a wide range of public comments.
The FCC is in a hurry. "Things have greatly accelerated over the last year," writes Powell to Wyden, "and so have the FCC's actions."
The hearing will hear "a wide range of witnesses from industry and government," but not (apparently) from the entrepreneurial creators of the next communications industry, or from end users who stand to benefit from the demise of the old telephone "industry".
"Shortly after the forum," the letter continues, "The FCC will initiate a Notice of Public (sic) Rule Making on VoIP services." (Actually, it is a notice of *PROPOSED* rule making -- Hundt says that the "Freudian" slip is telling.) As if the FCC will not need much time to consider the "witnesses" in the forum, as if the FCC already knows what the rules will say, as if the fix is in.
Powell closes by saying, "As the Senate moves to debate the Internet Tax Moritorium in the coming days, I urge caution in addressing VoIP issues." One of the VoIP issues on the table is Universal Service, according to Powell. That's a tax. It's a tax to support service to the rural and the poor that is being explored by somebody who recently likened the Internet to a Mercedes Benz -- a luxury, not a necessity.
Now that the Internet promises to a large proportion of the U.S. $300 Billion annual telecom revenues back into the pockets of rate payers, will the FCC prop up the telephone industry at the expense of the U.S. public with a tax?
It is not likely that the FCC, which recently ignored enormous public feedback about relaxed ownership caps on media, will be responsive to pleas to protect Voice over the Internet. But maybe Congress will. And maybe Powell will anticipate this sooner, rather than later, because Powell is a smart guy. Powell gets it. And he doesn't need any more egg on his face. More soon.
Former FCC Chair Reed Hundt reads a recent letter from FCC Chairman Michael Powell to Senator Ron Wyden to indicate that the FCC is speeding headlong towards an unknown set of VOIP regulations with as little public comment as possible. Hundt spoke today (November 11, 2003) at Jeff Pulver's Wireless Internet Summit in Santa Clara CA.
I've known for several weeks that the FCC will be holding a hearing on Voice Over Internet Protocol on December 1. I had thought it would be like the delightfully informative and informal Rural Wireless Internet Service Provider Workshop that the FCC held on November 4. But this is not to be.
Apparently the December 1 meeting is to be a formal FCC hearing designed to legally circumvent the more normal, deliberative Notice of Inquiry process, which is designed to solicit, collect and consider a wide range of public comments.
The FCC is in a hurry. "Things have greatly accelerated over the last year," writes Powell to Wyden, "and so have the FCC's actions."
The hearing will hear "a wide range of witnesses from industry and government," but not (apparently) from the entrepreneurial creators of the next communications industry, or from end users who stand to benefit from the demise of the old telephone "industry".
"Shortly after the forum," the letter continues, "The FCC will initiate a Notice of Public (sic) Rule Making on VoIP services." (Actually, it is a notice of *PROPOSED* rule making -- Hundt says that the "Freudian" slip is telling.) As if the FCC will not need much time to consider the "witnesses" in the forum, as if the FCC already knows what the rules will say, as if the fix is in.
Powell closes by saying, "As the Senate moves to debate the Internet Tax Moritorium in the coming days, I urge caution in addressing VoIP issues." One of the VoIP issues on the table is Universal Service, according to Powell. That's a tax. It's a tax to support service to the rural and the poor that is being explored by somebody who recently likened the Internet to a Mercedes Benz -- a luxury, not a necessity.
Now that the Internet promises to a large proportion of the U.S. $300 Billion annual telecom revenues back into the pockets of rate payers, will the FCC prop up the telephone industry at the expense of the U.S. public with a tax?
It is not likely that the FCC, which recently ignored enormous public feedback about relaxed ownership caps on media, will be responsive to pleas to protect Voice over the Internet. But maybe Congress will. And maybe Powell will anticipate this sooner, rather than later, because Powell is a smart guy. Powell gets it. And he doesn't need any more egg on his face. More soon.
Comments:
Post a Comment
