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Congress Asked To Preempt State VOIP Regulation

AT&T, Google, Others Push For Law Giving Exclusive Federal Jurisdiction

John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 12/2/2009 11:57:00 AM

AT&T and Google are on the same page when it comes to opposing state regulation of voice over IP services.

In a letter to top legislators, those two, joined by Microsoft, Verizon and others, asked Congress to establish in law that all IP services, if they are regulated at all, should be subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction rather than subject to a "patchwork" of "legacy state telecommunications regulation" that would discourage innovation.

They argue that the FCC has already said regulation should be on the federal level in its 2000 Vonage decision finding that VoIP is interstate and subject to the FCC's exclusive jurisdiction, signaling that it would reach the same conclusion about cable and other VoIP service.

"Despite the FCC's clearly expressed intent to bring regulatory certainty to VoIP service," they say, "there continue to be proposals that would permit state regulation, ultimately hurting IP-enabled Internet communications providers and their customers."

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• Fifty Bosses...or One?
  The demonstrated anarchy of individual state political influence requires that any commerce threaded through the national infrastructure be regulated nationally. It is particularly important that Telco, Cable and Wireless Infrastructure be separated from Content ownership in order to provide more and better choices at competitive prices.
  The U.S. lags-depending on who's counting what-14 to 23 countries in Broadband reach, service and speed, and in integration of services through Broadband. VOIP is no different; it is the future, and effort must be made to ensure competition and the opportunity for innovation.

  
  Barry Dennis - 12/3/2009 2:04:39 PM EST
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