Wednesday, July 05, 2006

 

VoIP and the USF

Jeff Pulver says he was caught off-guard when the FCC ruled that VoIP should make payments to the Universal Service Fund (USF) in the US.

He comments:

Our only saving grace is that other governments from around the world DO NOT follow the lead of this FCC and mirror their disruptive policies towards VoIP in their respective countries.

In May 2005, the CRTC ruled that voice is voice, regardless of the underlying technology. Interconnected VoIP providers are providing a Canadian telecommunications service and therefore contribute to the Canadian equivalent of the USF. So the FCC has simply reached the same conclusion as the CRTC did more than a year ago.

As we have written, the regulation of VoIP is being reconsidered, thanks to a Cabinet order that asked the CRTC to review its rules and issue a new ruling by Labour Day. But in its Decision last year, the CRTC noted that "Parties generally agreed that VoIP services should be contribution-eligible."

Posted by Mark Goldberg @ 7/05/2006 07:43:00 AM
Comments:
Well, hang on -- you know all of this, but some readers might not. First, in Canada non-voice contributes to USF, too, so it's not quite a fair comparison. Selling nothing but ATM or frame would yield the same result -- the only thing eliminated here is the Internet exemption. Second, voice isn't voice -- PSTN is PSTN would be a better slogan. Or, better, e.164 is e.164. If a provider doesn't take those voice calls from a PSTN phone number or inject them into a PSTN phone number, then the CRTC is not involved, universal service is not involved, etc. That may seem obvious, but it's important, and most journalists don't seem to get it: Internet applications still aren't being regulated.
Posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 11:49 AM, July 05, 2006
 
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