There’s an infamous quote attributed to New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra, who, when asked about a recurring scenario in a baseball game declared, “It’s déjà vu, all over again.” Whether Yogi actually said that or not is up for debate, but there’s no debating what the FCC (News - Alert) is doing when it comes to clarifying what VoIP technology is…or isn’t.
Back in December, the Commission once again sought to clarify exactly what “VoIP” is. A report from the legal site Lexology noted, “On December 20, 2013, the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau released a Public Notice requesting comment on a June 2013 petition filed by Union Electric Company d/b/a Ameren Missouri (Ameren). The Petition asks the FCC to issue a declaratory ruling that, under Section 224 of the Communications Act, VoIP service offered using a cable operator’s pole attachments is a ‘telecommunications service’ for purposes of determining pole attachment rental fees.”
That’s quite a mouthful, but it once again raises the idea that the FCC doesn’t quite know what to do about VoIP. VoIP providers say because it uses the Internet, it’s not beholden to telecom regulations. Telephone providers think just the opposite, and that’s where the rub comes in.
“To date, the FCC has refused to classify VoIP services under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, as regulated ‘telecommunications services’ or unregulated ‘information services,’” according to a report on Mondaq. The FCC chooses “instead to exercise its ancillary jurisdiction to impose specific regulatory obligations on providers of VoIP services regardless of whether the services meet the statutory definition of ‘telecommunications services’ or ‘information services.’"
The request for a clarifying ruling comes from new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (News - Alert), and is sure to bring some spirited insights from both sides of the argument.
“This request for declaratory ruling may prove to be important not only for utilities and VoIP service providers in the pole-attachment context, but also generally for all providers and users of VoIP services,” Mondaq notes, “since the statutory classification of VoIP services determines everything from the need to obtain permission from regulatory authorities before providing VoIP services to the applicability of common carrier rules to VoIP services.”
Will we finally get a once-and-for-all ruling? We’ll have to wait and see. Comments to the Commission are requested by January 21.
Edited by Blaise McNamee