In February, the US Federal Communications Commission launched
an inquiry into the rules and regulations that will govern the
budding internet phone service industry. But companies feared that
cash-strapped US states would also try to regulate and tax the
sector.
Republican Senator John Sununu announced on Friday that he would
be introducing a bill into the Senate later this week that will
reserve the right to regulate IP telephony, also known as VoIP or
Voice over Internet Protocol, to the federal government. If passed,
the new legislation would be known as the VoIP Regulatory Freedom
Act.
The bill aims to limit the controls that could be posed on the
technology by the FCC, and also requires VoIP companies linking
into the telephone system to accommodate law enforcement wiretaps.
The interception requirements would not apply to purely
internet-based services.
A similar bill was introduced into the House of Representatives
on Friday by Congressman Charles Pickering.
AT&T welcomed the announcement. Peter Jacoby, the telco's VP
of Congressional Affairs, said that the bills present "a
deregulatory approach that both acknowledges the need to reform the
current subsidy system and allows this nascent service to flourish
and bring the benefits of competition and innovation to the
telecommunications marketplace."
Comcast Corporation commended Senator Sununu and Rep Pickering
"for their leadership on VOIP telephony policy." It added, "Keeping
VOIP free of the kind of regulation developed for a monopoly
telephone era is essential to ensure that VOIP investment will
continue and competition will grow".
