European
Union - If it’s not real-time, it’s not voice telephony
NOTE: This note has been prepared by Craig
McTaggart and Tim Kelly of the ITU Strategies & Policy Unit (SPU).
The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the ITU or its membership. This note
is available on the ITU IP Telephony Website.
In May 1997, the European Commission released a draft
policy statement concerning voice on the Internet under Directive 90/388/EEC on
competition in the markets for telecommunications services.
Following public consultation, this document evolved into its January
1998 “status notice,” formally titled “Status Of Voice Communications On
Internet Under Community Law And, In Particular, Under Directive 90/388/EEC.”
Under Article 1 of Directive 90/388/EEC, "voice
telephony" means: “The commercial provision for the public of the direct
transport and switching of speech in real-time between public switched network
termination points, enabling any user to use equipment connected to such a
network termination point in order to communicate with another termination
point.”
The subject of the status notice was whether Internet
Telephony can be considered as voice telephony, or rather whether it falls into
the category of services liberalised under Directive 90/388/EEC.
The status notice gives four criteria which an Internet voice service
would have to meet to be considered voice telephony: (1) the service is the
subject of a commercial offer; (2) is offered for the public; (3) provides
service to and from public switched network termination points; and (4) involves
direct transport and switching of speech in real time.
The most important of the status notice’s four criteria
is the issue of whether the service is “real-time.” Since Internet Telephony signals generally involve several
conversion steps and face unpredictable traffic conditions, and as a result
suffer levels of delay not generally experienced with circuit-switched
telephony, they are not considered by the European policy to meet this
criterion. IP voice services could
be subject to relevant regulatory schemes in EU countries once the “real
time” threshold is met (and/or when the service provider claims it is met in
its advertising).
Much like the April, 1998, FCC “Report to Congress” in
the United States, the notice demonstrated an awareness that IP voice technology
was improving quickly, and noted that the situation must be kept under review.
The review process called for in the status notice was commenced in
November, 1999 and the results were released in a communication to the European
Parliament and Council on 26 April 2000. Since
Internet voice was not mentioned in that Communication, it would appear that the
EU countries are comfortable with the terms and effect of the status notice for
now.
Source:
European Commission, “Status of Voice Communications on the Internet Under
Community Law and, in Particular, Under Directive 90/388/EEC,” Official
Journal, No. C6, 10.1.1998, p.4, http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg04/lawliber/en/voice.htm.
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