The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has ruled that incumbent local exchange carriers must connect to VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services, overruling two state public service commission opinions.That seems to be a big victory for VoIP, driven, interestingly enough, by a request from Time-Warner....
The rural carriers had argued that FCC rules don't require them to connect to the wholesale vendors because they don't provide direct voice service to residents.
But the FCC said that argument was a misinterpretation of its rules.
— FCC: Local telephone carriers must connect to VOIP, Local carriers must allow Internet telephony service by rivals, contrary to state rulings. Grant Gross, PC World, Sunday, March 4, 2007; 11:10 PM
This article picks up on Time-Warner's motives:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has upheld Time Warner Cable Inc. 's right to link its VOIP customers to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) through wholesale phone lines.And Ars Technica spells out the relation to net neutrality:— FCC Ruling Favors Cable VOIP, Alan Breznick, Site Editor, Cable Digital News, MARCH 02, 2007
If you're thinking this is indicative of some of the debate over network neutrality, there's good reason. At its heart, this is an issue of net neutrality. The rural telecoms were discriminating against certain types of traffic by refusing to connect VoIP calls to their network. Since they have a monopoly in the areas they serve, their decision to lock out VoIP traffic left the VoIP providers at a competitive disadvantage in those markets.— FCC forces rural phone companies to carry VoIP traffic By Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica, Published: March 04, 2007 - 08:57PM CT
It's amusing to see the big cablecos and telcos opposing net neutrality with one hand, yet in this case supporting it with the other because Time-Warner saw a specific advantage in it.
Perhaps someday they'll realize net neutrality is to their advantage all the time.
-jsq
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