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June 13, 2006
The Week I Wish that Wasn't -- Down and Out in Washington, DC
For those of you keeping score, the Internet lost a couple big battles in Washington, DC last week, and that losing streak will likely continue.
First, on Thursday, the US House of Representatives lobbed a few late anti-Internet communications bombs into the COPE. Frankly, in my opinion, the COPE Bill wasn't horrible as of Thursday morning. COPE included some good language to enable VoIP providers to move towards a next-generation, IP-enabled emergency response network without being overly-saddled by backward looking, narrowband obligations. Then, the Net Neutrality amendment went down. AND then, out of nowhere, the anti-Internet communications forces mustered an amendment that could serve to pull the Internet communications industry into the archaic quagmire that is the intercarrier compensations and universal service regime. I believe that the Internet communications industry should contribute to promoting ubiquitous broadband, but the amendment proposed does nothing more than compel the emerging Internet application providers to line the pockets of the narrowband telecommunications providers.
Then, on Friday morning, the DC Circuit released its opinion upholding the FCC's Order imposing CALEA's wiretapping obligations on VoIP Providers. To me, that was just icing on the insult-to-injury cake that was last week in the history of Internet communications in the US. Frankly, unlike many of my fellow Petitioners in the appeal, I did not believe that the DC Circuit would do right by the Internet application companies. (See my posting from the hearing at http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/004484.html.) My read was that the panel, particularly Judge Edwards, saw the nonsense of the FCC's logic in applying CALEA to the broadband access services that the FCC had simultaneously reclassified as "Information Services" rather than "telecom services." Somehow, the FCC succeeded in convincing two judges on the DC Circuit, that broadband Internet access services can be "information services" for the purposes of relieving Bells and cable companies of traditional telecom regulation, but these very same broadband Internet access services can be "telecom services" for the purposes of the CALEA statute. I did not believe that we adequately convinced the judges that Internet-delivered voice applications were "information services" beyond the scope of the CALEA statute. As hard as it is to believe that Internet-based voice applications could somehow be telecom services, while the underlying telecom transmission services are information services, that seems to be the path the FCC (and now Congress and the Courts) is bring us down. It certainly is bringing me down!
What the week of backward-looking policy and judicial pronouncements made clear to me is that the US government - neither the legislators, nor the regulators, nor the judiciary get that "Voice is just an Application," deployable from anywhere to anywhere, and beyond the jurisdiction of local, state OR Federal regulators. Maybe we aren't saying it LOUD enough. Maybe they will only get this when America is so obviously watching the Internet communications revolution from the sidelines.
What is clear is that Americans won't really be able to participate (be it via voice, video, text, IM, or any heretofore unknown mode of IP-enabled communications) in the revolution. At least, not on a level playing field with the lucky subjects of those countries that get it. I had been tracking the state of Internet communications policy around the world through efforts with the Global IP Alliance and the VON Coalition. Most specifically, we posted a Global Policy Matrix and a user-supported Global Policy Wiki at www.globalipalliance.net>. But, as the battle for the future of the Internet heated up in America this year, we amassed most of our troop on the US front. To the extent possible, I commit to reviving our efforts to compile and update our sense of global policy developments.
For the moment, suffice it to say that there is an emerging divide between those countries that get it and those that don't, and, I hate to say it, but in just two short years, America has switched sides.
Tags: VoIP, CALEA, COPE, Net Neutrality, E911, Jeff Pulver
(c) 2006 Jeff Pulver. All Rights Reserved.
(This blog posting is copyright protected by Jeff Pulver. Portions of this blog posting may be quoted or abstracted if attributed.)
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Posted by jeff on June 13, 2006 04:23 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Jeff,
We just added your Blog on our updated site.
VoIPAction
http://www.VoIPAction.com
We love your site and what you have done in industry and were hoping for a mention via the new design.
Michael McCarthy
Director of Business Development
VoIPAction
http://www.VoIPAction.com
678.804.4224-Direct
678.792.4495-Fax
mailto:michaelm@VoIPAction.com
Posted by: Michael McCarthy at June 13, 2006 04:41 PM
If you'll pardon the pun, it's time to find the "one ring" that will bind them all together, the ISP's the telcos, the users and everyone in between.
It's got to be an application that everyone wants/needs and everyone can profit from.
In short, something that everyone can "get". :-)
Geoff.
Posted by: Geoff Mendelson at June 13, 2006 06:11 AM