USA
- IP Telephony looks like a telecommunications service,
but
is not regulated like one
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 Website.
There is currently no explicit regulation of any form of IP
Telephony in the United States, at either the state or federal level.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that
Phone-to-Phone IP Telephony (both true Internet Telephony and VoIP) appears to
be functionally equivalent to PSTN voice telephony.
However, these services are not covered by telecommunications regulation.
In May, 1996, America’s Carriers Telecommunication
Association (ACTA) filed a petition before the FCC requesting that it classify
as telecommunications carriers those companies that offer Internet
Telephony-facilitating software. At
the time, IP Telephony considered primarily of the PC-to-PC flavour.
Although the FCC did not immediately respond to the
petition, the issue of IP Telephony was considered extensively in a review of
universal service, called for in unrelated legislation,.
This process resulted in the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal
Service’s “Report to Congress,” released on 10 April 1998.
That process did not result in regulation of Phone-to-Phone services
because, the FCC said, it lacked a complete record on
particular service offerings. After
speculating about future proceedings in which the FCC would have to face these
issues head-on, the FCC made these remarks about the international aspects of
the issue:
“We recognize that our
treatment of phone-to-phone IP Telephony may have implications for the
international telephony market. In
the international realm, the Commission has stated that IP Telephony serves
the public interest by placing significant downward pressure on international
settlement rates and consumer prices. In
some instances, moreover, IP Telephony providers have introduced an
alternative calling option in foreign markets that otherwise would face little
or no competition. We continue to
believe that alternative calling mechanisms are an important pro-competitive
force in the international services market.
We need to consider carefully the international regulatory requirements
to which phone-to-phone providers would be subject.
For example, it may not be appropriate to apply the international
accounting rate regime to IP Telephony.”
The issue of IP Telephony regulation
in the United States returned to the fore in May 2000 with the passage in the
House of Representatives of a bill (HR 1291) intended to pre-empt the FCC from
imposing special access charges relating to dial-up Internet sessions.
One clause of the bill, which would still have to be passed by the Senate
before becoming law, states: “Nothing in this subsection shall preclude
the Commission from imposing access charges on the providers of Internet
telephone services, irrespective of the type of customer premises equipment used
in connection with such services.” This
appears to have been an afterthought in a bill otherwise focused on keeping
Internet access in the US free of per-minute charges.
Even though the FCC has not revealed any intention to impose specific
charges related to “Internet telephone services,” the bill has the US IP
Telephony industry lobbying hard against its passage in the Senate.
Sources:
Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, “Report to Congress, (10 April
1998), http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/fcc98067.html;
CNET
News.com (16.5.2000), http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-202-1879118.html.
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