BILL PROPOSES CUTTING STATE OUT OF VoIP REGULATION

Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Rick Boucher (D-Va.) last week introduced a bill that would pre-empt state regulators on voice over IP and other advanced services, while also eschewing categorical definitions in the Telecommunications Act.

Boucher said regulators should not be burdened by “the silly effort” of trying to fit converged voice, video and data services offered over an IP platform into the Act's definitions of telecom services and information services. The Stearns-Boucher bill creates a new category — Advanced Internet Communications Services (AICS) — that includes, but isn't limited to, VoIP.

By painting a regulatory picture with a “broad brush,” the AICS classification will give regulators the flexibility to address converged services that have yet to be developed, according to Boucher.

“Our bill is designed to treat all advanced communications the same because they're all offering the same services,” Boucher said in an interview with Telephony. “This way, we're not going to have to come back in two years to rewrite the law because of the latest fad. There shall be complete parity of regulation.”

And that parity will be the sole jurisdiction of the FCC.

“By establishing that AICS are interstate services, we eliminate the regulatory uncertainty of a myriad of different state regulatory approaches,” Stearns said in a prepared statement.

But even the FCC would not impose any economic regulation of AICS, Boucher said.

“There are a number of alternatives, and they are highly competitive,” he said.

The bill calls for VoIP providers to adhere to social obligations such as 911, universal service and equal access to disabled consumers. In addition, the bill dictates that all VoIP calls terminating on the public network be subject to access charges. However, given that VoIP calls would be deemed interstate, access charges unwittingly would be unified, Boucher acknowledged.

“That really hadn't come up before, but I think it's inevitable that [all calls touching the public network] eventually will be treated as an interstate call,” he said.

With the inclusion of access revenues to legacy providers, the bill may allay rural carriers' fears raised over other VoIP proposals without overly burdening the nascent technology.

“My sense is that the obligations set forth in the legislation are ones VoIP providers are willing to assume, but, as always, the devil's in the details,” said GrayCarey counsel Larry Blosser.