Court Backs FCC on VoIP Regulation

Ted Hearn (3.21.07)
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6426491.html

The court backs FCC in keeping telecommunications laws from applying to VoIP providers.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Wednesday upheld Federal Communications Commission rules that banned states from applying their telecommunications laws to a class of voice-over-Internet-protocol providers, such as Vonage Holdings.

The court concluded that the FCC acted reasonably in pre-empting state regulation and that the agency could assert its jurisdiction without first having to determine whether VoIP is an information service or a telecommunications service as those terms are defined in federal law.

The FCC’s rules were adopted in late 2004 under former FCC chairman Michael Powell, who wanted to shield nascent VoIP providers from complex and inconsistent state regulation. Minnesota’s effort to regulate Vonage triggered Powell’s moves at the FCC.

There is still a question about whether IP video should be treated as a traditional cable service subject to local franchising authority or whether it’s not a service subject to Title VI in the same way that voice-over-IP isn’t traditional telecommunications subject to all of the [common-carrier] regulations,” Martin told a telecommunications forum.

“I think the decision [that] will come out of that [Vonage] case will be critical in trying to craft whether or not the commission’s authority to deal with all of these IP services will continue to be affirmed,” he added.

More reading:

Judges Back FCC Over Attempts To Regulate Internet Phones (Provides a nice history of the ruling)