The Internet has changed the way we live, not always for the best. But it has the potential to make amends in a big way if it delivers on what many experts believe is its potential to provide cheap, reliable telephone service.
Verizon, the nation`s largest telecommunications company, recently announced it plans to provide nationwide Internet phone service. AT&T, which recently bailed out of the residential telephone market, says it will still sell Internet phone service to consumers.
But advocates of Internet telephone service, who can be quite passionate on the subject, say the technology`s potential would be much greater if hundreds of smaller companies can get into the market, providing more competition for the giants. To accomplish that, they say, requires removing layers of federal and state regulations currently imposed on traditional telephone service.
As you might expect, companies are fighting for the advantage in this lucrative emerging technology. Telephone companies, cable providers - even software makers and equipment manufacturers are positioning themselves to influence Congress as it decides how to treat Internet telephone service.
In fact, Congress has already gone to work, with House and Senate committees taking very different approaches. The Senate Commerce Committee has adopted language that would regulate Internet phone service much the way traditional phone service is regulated. The House version of the measure regulates it with a much lighter hand.
But in one area there is strong agreement. Whatever kind of government policy emerges, it is likely to give the federal government more regulatory power and the states less. In fact, before approving the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) bill, the Senate Commerce Committee approved a amendment that "generally pre-empts" state regulation of Voice Over Internet applications. In a bow to the states, however, the legislation would require Internet phone service providers to continue to provide 911 services.
But the states charge that consumers will be the losers if the federal government assumes most of the regulatory control. States currently ensure telephone access for the underserved and disabled, and play watchdog to the regional Bell companies. Some state consumer agencies worry that these larger companies will move into the lightly regulated Internet phone service market to escape some of their current requirements.
Then there`s the whole question of long distance service. Currently, long-distance provideders pay billions of dollars in access fees. It has yet to be determined who has to pay what to connect long distance calls.
Besides Congress, the Federal Communications Commission will also have a say in the final shape of Internet phone service regulation. The FCC recently held a public roundtable on the subject, bringing in international experts on the subject. Agency chairman Michael Powell is on record backing light regulation of Internet phone service, arguing that it`s really more like data transmission than telephone service.
Not even the large telephone service and long distance providers are of one mind on the regulation issue, with some like SBC Communications calling for more, and others, like AT&T, calling for less.
Not surprisingly, no resolution is expected any time soon. Congress has no intention of taking up the issue until next year, at the earliest.
