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IP Phones - Transitioning to an IP Phone System Not As Easy for Public Systems
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August 01, 2013
Transitioning to an IP Phone System Not As Easy for Public Systems
By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor
 

Governing the Internet is a rather complex situation. What we have in the communications space is this wide open road that requires government to operate in unfamiliar ways; it has to share power with the IT community, with businesses and with the community at large. The speed at which the Internet is growing is faster than anyone can define Internet rules, so much that these complexities are effecting IP communications as well.


Because IP communications and IP phones rely on the Internet to work, the same pluralistic models required for Internet governance apply to how calls are made, but one of the main issues in a post-Superstorm Sandy era on Fire Island in New York is policy and how to govern the ether when old rules applied only to the copper network itself.

It’s a confusing process, because as it stands, companies shouldn’t be forced to keep copper-based technologies, however, the need for new infrastructure has an impact on how national policies effect 9-1-1 in a new digital landscape.

The bottom line is it’s about service to all Americans, according to a white paper published by consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge (News - Alert). The white paper details a framework for ascertaining the new policy.

"We cannot, and should not, demand that companies keep the same copper-based technologies forever. But we also should not assume that the new world will automatically be just as good or better. It can easily be a step backward, as well as a step forward. As we shall see, there was nothing magic about copper that gave us the basic principles of service to all Americans, competition, consumer protection, reliability, and public safety. Rather, deliberate policy choices were responsible for creating the national 9-1-1 system or making sure that everyone had affordable phone service. If we make a different set of choices now, we could easily leave these and other things we associate with the phone system behind,” authors Harold Felda PK senior vice president and PK Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin argue in the report.

Superstorm Sandy has highlighted Verizon’s and AT&T’s shift toward an IP system, and AT&T filed a petition asking the FCC (News - Alert) to address the matter and put a pilot program in place. There was much ado about the situation, as Verizon wanted to replace Fire Island’s system with a fixed wireless system called Voice Link.

Verizon’s (News - Alert) plans have drawn national criticism and all has been put on hold as the Public Service Commission, a state regulator, considers the request.

Verizon's request has become a pivotal in the debate over whether regulators should allow telecommunications providers to permanently stop selling what is known as POTS--Plain Old Telephone Service--and start offering customers IP-based equivalents.




Edited by Rachel Ramsey
 
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