FCC expected to assert VoIP jurisdiction on Tuesday

FCC commissioners likely will declare that voice-over-IP calls are subject to federal jurisdiction during the commission’s meeting on Tuesday.

Commissioners are expected to take the action when they consider a Vonage petition that asked the FCC to declare VoIP calls that terminate on the PSTN to be interstate in nature and information services.

By declaring VoIP interstate in nature, the FCC can assert its jurisdiction over the nascent technology and effectively halt proceedings in 18 to 20 states that could result in a "patchwork" of regulations that could undermine VoIP providers, according to Bill Wilhelm, a partner with the law firm of Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman who represents Vonage in ongoing state disputes in Minnesota and New York.

FCC Wireline Competition Bureau Chief Jeffrey Carlisle said last month that asserting federal jurisdiction over VoIP--something more than a hundred members of Congress have urged Chairman Michael Powell to do—is a priority at the agency.

Wilhelm said he does not believe the FCC will act on the other aspect of the Vonage petition and declare IP-to-PSTN calls to be information services, which would have far-reaching implications.

"I think it would be surprising if the commission finds that VoIP is an information service," Wilhelm said. "I don’t have any reason to believe they’re going to find that. They don’t tend to decide what they don’t have to decide, and they don’t have to decide that to assert jurisdiction."

Earlier this year, the FCC ruled that IP-to-IP calls are information services and that PSTN-to-PSTN calls transported over IP backbones are subject to traditional access charges. The Vonage petition would establish the categorical definition of IP-to-PSTN calls, while a Level 3 petition would clarify whether access charges are applied when IP-to-PSTN calls are made.

The FCC last month granted itself an extension to decide the Level 3 petition. The commission must rule on the Level 3 petition by March 22.