Morrison & Foerster : Legal Updates & News : Bulletins : Communications ::
about its authority and jurisdiction to implement the Panels recommendations. the House bill merely gives the FCC the authority to adjudicate Net neutrality
http://www.mofo.com/news/updates/bulletins/bulletin02170.htmlHOME |
WASHINGTON -- State regulatory agencies won a significant victory Thursday
when the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee voted to preserve state authority to
impose access charges and universal service fees on Internet telephony.
The narrow 12-10 vote that crossed party lines came in the form of an
amendment by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to the Regulatory Freedom Act of
2004, a measure originally calling for sole federal jurisdiction over Voice
over Internet Protocol (VoIP) (define) services.
"As I read this amendment, it effectively guts the bill by turning back to
the state commissions all their regulatory powers having to with existing
telephone service," said Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), the author of the
legislation.
With Dorgan's amendment tacked on it and another by Sen. Conrad Burns
(R-Mont.) calling for VoIP services to provide emergency 9-1-1 service, the
committee voted 13-9 to approve the Regulatory Freedom Act.
"The intention of the bill is to prevent 50 states from regulating, and this
[amendment] gives back to the states the power to regulate as they choose,"
Sununu said. "This is not a local copper circuit-switched system. We need to
get away from that thinking, and this certainly takes us 180 degrees in the
opposite direction."
NET NEUTRALITY HEARING::
UNITED STATES SENATE. ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS. SECOND SESSION. FEBRUARY 7, 2006 tions, what VoIP system to use in assembling digital bits into voice
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/30115.PDFHOME |
The legislation now goes to the full Senate for consideration, but a floor
vote is not expected before the 108th Congress closes for business in
November. A bill similar to Sununu's original measure has yet to be voted on
in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Dorgan called VoIP a "promising, exciting, new, breathtaking" technology,
but added he was concerned about the economic impact of voice traffic
migrating from the public switched telephone network to the Internet.
The Progress & Freedom Foundation Blog::
Thus, states have been involved even with respect to issues the Act gives the about the FCCs authority to eclipse states on VoIP from overruling the agencys
http://www.pff.org/weblog/archive/2004_10_01_archive.htmlHOME |
CQ Politics | Negotiators Start Talks on 911 Service for Internet Phone ::
Informal negotiations designed to resolve differences between House and Senate bills to give Internet phone companies give VoIP providers the authority to
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=cqmidday-000002698742HOME |
By converting voice into data packets moving over the Internet, IP-based
voice services promise lower costs and additional features to traditional
telephone services. Many states, however, are worried that a federal mandate
blocking their control over VoIP will cost them millions in tariffs.
"[The migration] from traditional phone services will have a dramatic impact
on access fees that support smaller, regional telephone companies," Dorgan
said.
Access fees are the charges by incumbent telephone networks for using their
lines to transmit voice traffic and are a lucrative source of taxes for
states. Most VoIP providers route calls from leased local telephone lines to
a gateway server that converts analog voice into data packets. VoIP
providers argue since the traffic is converted into data packets, they are
not traditional voice-based telephone companies.
Sununu introduced his bill in April, concerned that forcing VoIP providers
to pay access fees and meet different sets of state regulations would crush
the emerging technology. In hopes of preserving the original intent of the
legislation, Sununu and his staff worked into the early morning hours of
Thursday to appease the concerns of Dorgan and other members of the
committee.
By the time the committee met to cast the first congressional votes on
whether or not the states have jurisdictional powers over VoIP, Sununu
introduced a substitute to his original bill limiting exclusive federal
authority over VoIP to three years.
Sununu's compromise measure also gave the states rights to enforce consumer
protection laws and left room for law enforcement concerns about the
accessibility of VoIP networks to wiretapping.
The majority of the lawmakers on the panel ultimately decided the
compromises did not go far enough.
"We're really trampling on the rights of states to regulate telephone
service," Louisiana Democrat John Breaux said. "This [legislation] is very
premature. We're telling our states to get out of the way."
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Senate Panel Gives VoIP Authority to States