At 09:56 AM 3/10/96 -0500, "Harry S. Hawk" <habs@warwick.com> wrote:

...

I wonder what exactly the FCC means by the term "Internet Phone." Does this just mean that software like IPhone will be regulated, or will this also apply The thing is that at "best" the Iphone people (et al), are sell Equipment!. NO ONE is SELLING phone service.. I mean Selling phone service means some guy in NYC putting a sign on a store front offering 10 cents a minute calls "anyway where in the world."

Maybe nobody is selling phone service, and the internet provider is selling packet-transfer service, but phone service _is_ being provided. One possible response would be for the FCC to require internet providers to block phone connections (highly unlikely; you could offer the service on any port you wanted, and I think one of the versions runs over IRC); another would be for them to block the sale of the software (tough to block sale of Israeli software, much less free software.) Bogus. #-- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215 pager 408-787-1281 # "At year's end, however, new government limits on Internet access threatened # to halt the growth of Internet use. [...] Government control of news media # generally continues to depend on self-censorship to regulate political and # social content, but the authorities also consistently penalize those who # exceed the permissable." - US government statement on China...