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May 19, 2004
New York State rules Vonage is a "Telecom Company"
Earlier today the New York Public Services Commission announced their decision that Vonage is a telecom company under NY State rules.
Specifically the Commission determined that "...Vonage owns and manages equipment that is used to provide telephone service to Vonage's customers and to connect Vonage's customers to the
customers of other telephone corporations via their public networks and thus, like other owners of telecommunications-provisioning equipment, is subject to the NYS Public Service Law."
This is a very troubling development.
I am quite disappointed to see that New York State decided to apply legacy telephone regulation to Internet based communications while the FCC is in
the process of figuring out the right regulatory treatment for VoIP.
Between this decision in New York and a pending decision in California, these new developments may lead to the introduction of new regulatory barriers that in fact could slow the adoption of IP Communication services and delay the extraordinary benefits available from such services.
This is not a good day for Telecom Policy in New York.
Posted by jeff on May 19, 2004 05:10 PM | Permalink
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