[IP] FCC's Powell Says States Should Avoid Web Oversight
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 00:37:51 -0500
From: Robert Pepper <Robert.Pepper@xxxxxxx>
Subject: FCC's Powell Says States Should Avoid Web Oversight
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Reports about the FCC rushing to regulate VoIP are misinformed?see
Bloomberg wire article on Nov. 13 reporting on Powell speech to the
Federalist Society:
FCC's Powell Says States Should Avoid Web Oversight
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- State governments should leave regulation
of the Internet to the federal government, which in turn should largely let
Web business operate as a free market, Federal Communications Commission
Chairman Michael Powell said. ``The Internet desperately needs to
enjoy fairly uniform regulatory treatment,'' Powell told lawyers at the
Washington- based non-profit Federalist Society. ``I personally believe the
market is the best standard on which the Internet runs.'' The FCC has
scheduled a Dec. 1 hearing on regulating use of the Internet to route
telephone calls with a technology known as ``voice over Internet
protocol,'' or VOIP, which is less expensive than traditional phone
service. Powell has said the FCC will soon start considering rules on how
Web calling should be overseen. California state regulators met today
to discuss VOIP-related rules. In Minnesota, a federal judge said last
month that the state's regulators can't classify Internet call-router
Vonage Holdings Corp. as a local phone company to regulate it more
closely. ``Internet service has been a regulatory-free zone, and I
don't see any problem with that for the foreseeable future,'' said Billy
Jack Gregg, head of West Virginia's state consumer advocacy unit. ``The
states should stay out unless there's a demonstrated problem with Internet
access, which actually has gotten better -- not worse -- over the
years.'' Shares of companies that seek to serve the Internet phone
market, such as SpectraLink Corp. and Sonus Networks Inc., have risen with
increased demand for VOIP systems. Their competitors include Cisco Systems
Inc., Comcast Corp. and Avaya Inc. Powell, a Republican appointed by
President George W. Bush, said state regulatory efforts ``could suck the
life force out of Internet development'' by imposing ``multiple and
competing rules.'' The rules could add cost and complexity to Web
businesses, while impeding company growth and innovation, he said.
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