Internet telephony report
E. ALLEN SMITH
EALLENSMITH at ocelot.rutgers.edu
Mon May 6 21:56:18 PDT 1996
While they _probably_ aren't going to start trying to charge for
Internet phone service, the FCC still thinks it should be able to regulate
the Internet - with the egalitarian excuse of equal access as among the
reasons. Hmph... bureaucracy.
-Allen
From: IN%"rre at weber.ucsd.edu" 6-MAY-1996 03:21:47.24
From: Phil Agre <pagre at weber.ucsd.edu>
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Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996
From: "Craig A. Johnson" <caj at tdrs.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of list cyber-rights at cpsr.org" <errors at snyside.sunnyside.com>
Subject: cr> Regulating the Internet
It is highly recommended that those who are concerned about the
coming communications regulatory regime read the FCC's recent NPRMs
on "universal service" and "interconnection."
--caj
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ANALYSIS: FREE NET TELEPHONY
+
by Craig A. Johnson
American Reporter Correspondent
Washington
4/29/96
net-regulation
1023/$10.23
THE REGULATORS MEET THE INTERNET
by Craig A. Johnson
American Reporter Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Fears of Rambo-like regulation have spawned a sort
of spring fever in the online world, with presumptive alarms and bulletins
ricocheting all over the Net.
Will the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) choke the
Internet's wide-open pathways with regulatory underbrush? Will the
petition filed by the Americas' Carriers Telecommunications Association
(ACTA) on March 4 be granted, stopping Internet telephony or mandating
access charges? (AR, No. 245 ) Or, even more catastrophically, will the
Net somehow be swept under the FCC regime for telecommunications carriers?
The answers, according to sources both inside and outside of the
FCC, for the time being, are a qualified no. On April 19, the FCC gave
its tentative response on the Net telephony problem, partially assuaging
worries that new regulations will require access charges and tariffing for
long distance voice over the Internet. Although the soft no from the FCC
was reassuring, the wall protecting Internet voice as an "information
service" has scores of cracks and may still crumble under the blows of a
regulatory hammer.
The issue was addressed in the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(NPRM) on "interconnection," or more formally, "implementation of
the local competition provisions in the Telecommunications Act of
1996." The NPRM is as interesting for what it does not say as for
what it does.
Generally, it poses a lot of questions, on which parties will file
comments, and on the basis of which the FCC will finalize rules in August.
The agency sees the proceeding and the consequent rules as establishing
"the 'new regulatory paradigm' that is essential to achieving Congress'
policy goals."
The visible fractures in the old regulatory regime stood out
prominently in the interconnection notice. Two aspects of the proceeding,
in particular, directly relate to Internet access and pricing regimes.
First, the FCC made it clear that current access charges and
interconnection regulations are "enforceable until they are superseded."
The FCC said, in regulatory-ese, that it wanted comments on "any aspect of
this Notice that may affect existing 'equal access and nondiscriminatory
interconnection restrictions and obligations (including receipt of
compensation).'"
Translated, this means that Net telephone providers and users can
breathe a little more easily for the time being. But, the call for
comments on the existing "restrictions and guidelines" should not be taken
for granted. It is precisely these regulations -- which exempt "enhanced
service" providers, like Internet and online service providers from paying
access charges for their usage of the facilities and network components of
local exchange carriers (LECs) -- which are on the table in this
proceeding and related ones.
A second aspect of the interconnection proceeding relates directly
to definitions. The Commission asks for comment "on which carriers are
included under" the definition of "telecommunications carriers" offered in
the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Critically, the agency asks: "How does the provision of an
information service [as conventionally defined in the law and prior
regulations], in addition to an unrelated telecommunications service,
affect the status of a carrier as a 'telecommunications carrier?'"
This is a call for commenters to address the issue of whether
"information service providers," such as ISPs, who also provide
"telecommunications services," should be treated as "telecommunications
carriers" and therefore be subject to all, some, or none of the
requirements of common carriers, including the payment of access charges
and the filing of tariffs.
In practical terms the FCC is asking the online community to
persuade them that ISPs who permit Internet audio streaming applications,
such as long distance voice, should not be considered under the same rules
applying to "telecommunications providers."
The FCC emphasizes that the interconnection rulemaking "is one of
a number of interrelated proceedings," and explains that the answer to
how, in which ways, and to what extent the Internet will be regulated will
be a product of "the interrelationship between this proceeding, our
recently initiated proceeding to implement the comprehensive universal
service provisions of the 1996 Act and our upcoming proceeding to reform
our Part 69 access charge rules."
This should be seen as a warning flag that issues concerning
access charges for the Internet have yet to be even taken up by the
Commission, and will be one of the outcomes of several complex
proceedings, with public comments invited from all consumer and business
interests.
The FCC NPRM and order establishing the joint federal-state
universal service board, issued on March 8, for example, emphasizes the
provision in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which stipulates that
"[a]ccess to advanced telecommunications and information services should
be provided in all regions of the country." The FCC says that "commenters
may wish to discuss Internet access availability, data transmission
capability, ... enhanced services, and broadband services."
In both this and the interconnection notices, the agency
emphasizes its statutory authority to regulate the Internet. The news so
far is relatively positive. The FCC claims it doesn't want to prematurely
slap regulations on the Net which may stunt its remarkable growth and
vitality.
But the handwriting is on the wall -- in several different hands
and scrawled over cracks. Arguments for Internet volume-based or
per-packet pricing will be surely surface in comments in the FCC
proceedings. The old argument for the "modem tax," which says that data
bits should be priced differently than voice bits, will likely rear its
scarred head.
Internet access is on the charts and in the dockets at the
Commission. It should have the same pride of place for all Internet
activists and user group communities. The FCC is asking the Internet and
computer user and business communities to wake up to an emergent
regulatory regime in which the old comfortable dualities such as
"information services" and "telecommunications services" -- which in the
past have insulated the Internet from regulation -- may not be easily
parsed. In short, the agency is begging for help in drafting the
cyber-roadmaps for the future.
(Note: Both the universal service NPRM and order and the
interconnection NPRM can be accessed via the FCC's Web page --
http://www.fcc.gov. Many of the comments for the universal service
proceedings are also now available at the site.)
-30-
(Craig Johnson writes on cyber rights issues for WIRED.)
The American Reporter
"The Internet Daily Newspaper"
Copyright 1995 Joe Shea, The American Reporter
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