Blackened
Your Freedom Fries Are Stale
join:2003-09-29
| reply to RadioDoc
Re: Idiots
From the article: quote:
In November, the FCC ruled that Vonage-style VOIP service should be free from most state regulation because the service can’t practically be separated into intrastate and interstate components. Because Vonage customers can use the service to make a call from a broadband connection anywhere in the world, it’s hard to determine whether a call is local, interstate or international, the FCC said.
I fail to see how they could prove the last sentence untrue, which would be needed to overturn the ruling. |
calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| Believe me, in the name of consumer protection, the California PUC would embrace a mandatory requirement that every VoIP capable device (including all PCs) would have to have a functional GPS receiver to determine its location.
In order to preserve its power, the CPUC would eagerly push for such a requirement, regardless of the fact that it would be:
1. unenforceable
2. unworkable, as GPS doesn't work well indoors
3. and worst of all, horribly expensive for consumers, both in the cost of the equipment and in the economic results of over-regulation.
Anybody who doubts the above scenario should recall the early years of cellular, when the CPUC prohibited "bundling" the phone with the service. The idiots thought that would lower the cost of service, as the service wouldn't be trying to recoup the cost of the phone. Instead, Californians got service at the same or higher cost as the rest of the country, and got the privilege of paying the full cost of the cellular phone upfront as well. The companies liked the enforced restraint of trade which lowered their costs (no promotional phones) until things reached a point where the cost of the phone was a real hurdle to new sales. About that time, the FCC preempted state regulation, thank heavens.
This being California, I'm sure otherwise the CPUC would be punishing cellular companies for not building new cell sites that other branches of California government are obstructing in every way possible.
calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
