The Jeff Pulver Blog: VON Coalition Letter to President Bush:

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January 20, 2006

VON Coalition Letter to President Bush:

Yesterday, leaders from the VoIP industry sent President Bush a letter outlining six key steps that policymakers could take to unleash the full promise and potential of Internet voice communications. In order to help meet the President's goal of making affordable broadband access available to all Americans by 2007, the VON Coalition believes that the Administration should help remove barriers to innovation that could stifle VoIP-driven broadband investment. With the right policy framework, VoIP can play a critical role in boosting broadband demand by making talking more affordable, businesses more productive, communications more accessible, broadband more valuable, and Americans more safe and secure.

The key policy enablers include:

1. Continuing the successful hands off approach to Internet communication regulation

2. Ensuring consumers are allowed the freedom to use any device, application or service over the Internet

3. Avoiding the imposition of the broken access charge scheme onto new broadband enabled services or applying yesterday's rules to tomorrow's technologies and slowing broadband adoption

4. Building on significant VoIP E9-1-1 accomplishments by acting to remove the remaining barriers that can further accelerate E9-1-1 and allow consumers to take advantage of a set of breakthrough emergency advances

5. Ensuring that every American has the opportunity to benefit from the unique capabilities of VoIP by avoiding the creation of a new regulatory-induced digital voice divide between those who may benefit from broadband voice applications and those who may not

6. Maximizing the government's own effectiveness by further leveraging the unique capabilities of VoIP in order to communicate more effectively, flexibly, and productively

Here is the text of the letter:

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The VON Coalition

January 19, 2006

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As members of The Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition, we represent the
nation's leading VoIP companies, on the cutting edge of developing and
delivering voice innovations over the Internet. We are writing you today to
encourage the Administration to continue to help unleash the full promise
and potential of Internet communications.

As we begin 2006, the Administration has an unparalleled opportunity to
seize upon the potential of emerging voice technologies to launch a new era
of broadband-enabled investment and consumer benefits. On the horizon are a
set of transformative improvements in the way we communicate that harness
the power of the Internet to deliver new voices, choices, and services. As
a result, businesses and consumers across the country are flocking to
broadband in order to take advantage of these breakthrough technologies.

In order to help meet your commendable goal of making affordable broadband
access available to all Americans by 2007, the VON Coalition believes that
the Administration should remove barriers to innovation that are very likely
to stifle VoIP-driven broadband investment. With the right policy framework,
VoIP can play a critical role in boosting broadband demand by making talking
more affordable, businesses more productive, communications more accessible,
broadband more valuable, and Americans more safe and secure.

To harness VoIP's full potential, the Administration should continue to be a
catalyst for pragmatic policy choices by embracing six key policy enablers:

- First, policymakers should continue their successful hands-off approach to
Internet communications regulation. This hands-off policy approach has made
the U.S. a world leader in the development of VoIP and has provided an
influential policy model that has been emulated by countries around the
world. Policymakers should refrain from reflexively applying yesterday's
rules to tomorrow's technologies, which could inhibit the growth of VoIP and
other new IP-enabled technologies, and therefore slow the overall growth of
broadband. Thus, VoIP policies must recognize that this technology can be
much more than a mere substitute for traditional telephone service. As such,
it requires new and forward-thinking regulatory approaches.

- Second, consumers should be allowed to use any device, application, or
service on the Internet that they choose. These basic Internet freedoms
positively shaped the development of the Internet and should be carried
forward to the broadband future. Indeed, the openness of the Internet has
been its defining hallmark, and such openness is critical to unlocking the
vast future potential of Internet communications. At the same time,
consumers should not be prevented from lawfully using the bandwidth for
which they pay.

- Third, policymakers should avoid imposing the broken access charge scheme
onto new broadband enabled services. Instead, the FCC should move quickly to
reform the current intercarrier compensation regime. The Administration's
innovation agenda correctlystates that "precluding new access fees on
broadband services helps reduce the cost of both the Internet and high-speed
data services." Simply put, if you want something to grow, don't tax it.
Prior to comprehensive intercarrier compensation reform being adopted,
policymakers should avoid piecemeal regulation that could predetermine the
outcome of comprehensive reform, or would require extensive short-term
investment for something unnecessary in the long-term. In any event, the
reform implemented by policymakers should be accomplished on a prospective
basis, rather than imposing backwards looking costs on providers.

- Fourth, the Administration has within its reach a significant VoIP E9-1-1
accomplishment it can embrace today and foster for tomorrow. In the wake of
FCC action, the VoIP industry has already made impressive progress in
advancing 911 and E9-1-1 solutions -in fact, the VoIP industry has made
faster progress than any other form of voice service. As a result of this
unprecedented effort, Americans who dial 911 using interconnected VoIP
services can now have assurance that they will reach emergency services.
Policymakers should build on these accomplishments by acting to remove
remaining barriers and enabling even more comprehensive solutions. The
Administration should support initiatives that further accelerate E9-1-1
solutions such as providing direct access to the 911 network, providing
equivalent liability protection for 911 call-takers and providers, and
accelerating the transition to a next generation IP-enabled emergency
network capable of a host of breakthrough advances.

- Fifth, policymakers should ensure that every American has the opportunity
to benefit from the unique capabilities of broadband-enabled VoIP - wherever
they live. In a year when advancing universal phone service and universal
broadband access will be top telecommunications priorities, facilitating
universal VoIP access can help accelerate both goals. We agree with FCC
Chairman Martin's recent statement that it "is critical that consumers have
unfettered access to the Internet and all the services it provides." To that
end, we recommend revising the restriction that the FCC currently has in
place that effectively prevents many rural Americans and others from
adopting VoIP, while at the same time advancing E9-1-1 solutions. Indeed,
current VoIP sales restrictions could block approximately 98 million
Americans, mostly in rural areas, from the many benefits of VoIP, slow
E9-1-1 solutions, and impede success of your universal broadband goal. The
federal government need not create a regulatory-induced digital voice divide
between those who may benefit from digital voice and those who may not.
Rather, policymakers should look to ways to spur investment in broadband
networks and IP services and applications to bring the promise of additional
choices to consumers.

- Sixth, the Administration should further maximize its effectiveness by
leveraging the unique capabilities of VoIP. Federal agencies are already
utilizing VoIP at unprecedented rates and taking advantage of VoIP's
enhanced flexibility, lower costs, nomadic capabilities, and breakthrough
features in order to communicate more effectively, flexibly, and
productively. U.S. astronauts on the International Space Station, military
commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, workers in the Commerce Department in
Washington, sailors aboard our nation's 12 active air craft carriers, and
many others are using VoIP to transform the way the federal government
communicates and ensures Americans are more safe and secure. But the best is
yet to come. This year, the federal government has the opportunity to
further leverage the unique advantages of VoIP as the General Services
Administration awards a new 10-year, $20 billion contract enabling converged
voice, video, and data networks to help speed the government's own VoIP
transformation. Broader VoIP migration can help pay for the administration's
policy priorities. In fact, one study suggests that governments could save
as much as $3-$10 billion a year by deploying VoIP more broadly - a number
roughly on par with the revenues gained from the DTV transition.

By embracing these six basic policy principles, the Administration can
continue to unleash the vast economic and consumer benefits that the
Internet and broadband are capable of delivering.

The VON Coalition believes that the potential for an immense new wave of
VoIP-led technological innovation is at your doorstep. This innovation will
enable consumers to do things never before thought possible, help businesses
to transform the way they work, and spur the economy as an engine for higher
paying information age jobs. However, automatically applying legacy
regulations designed for a 100-year-old telephone network to innovative VoIP
technologies will stifle innovation, stall important consumer benefits, and
reduce the demand for broadband across our nation.

Over the next three years, your Administration has the opportunity to set a
course that can spread a new communications revolution throughout America
and around the globe. The VON Coalition looks forward to working with you to
achieve this bright future.

Sincerely,

The VON Coalition

cc: Senator Ted Stevens, Chairman, Senate Commerce Committee
Congressman Joe Barton, Chairman, House Commerce Committee
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Department of Commerce
Chairman Kevin Martin, Federal Communications Commission

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Tags: voip, VON Coalition