We recently had a chance to chat with Jeff Pulver, co-founder of Vonage and founder of Free World Dial-Up, to pick his brain about his experiences with VoIP and his recent adventures with the FCC. Jeff's history with VoIP has put him at the forefront of the industry, as his bio from his website (Pulver.com) testifies:

"Jeff Pulver is President and CEO of pulver.com, Inc. He is a globally respected visionary with more than a decade of experience in Internet and IP communications and is a "parallel entrepreneur". He is the author of: Internet Telephone Toolkit (1996/Wiley), the publisher of: The Pulver Report and creator of the Voice on the Net (VON), and Presence and Instant Messaging (PIM) conferences. Mr. Pulver is the founder of: The VON Coalition, RevUp Records, and co-founder of: Vonage, WHP Wireless and Free World Dialup. Jeff is one of the true pioneers in Internet Telephony whose expertise is widely utilized inside the telecommunications industry."

BBR: Can you explain your role in the development of Vonage?

Jeff Pulver: In 1998 I founded the Minutes Exchange, Min-X.com. In early 2001 Min-X changed it's name to Vonage Holdings. These days I am a minority shareholder in Vonage and I'm a passive investor in the company.

BBR: What made you decide to develop Free World Dial-Up?

Jeff Pulver: Free World Dialup first launched in November, 1995. Back then we were the first internet telephony network. FWD ver 1.0 was a free PC to Phone service Which serviced thousands of people from around the world. In November 2002 I re-launched Free World Dialup as an end-to-end IP telephony over broadband service to prove to the world that internet telephony in 2002 doesn't "suck."

BBR: What are your opinions on the FBI's concern that VoIP is becoming a safe haven for terrorist and drug runner communications? What are your thoughts on their efforts to pursue companies like Cisco and Metaswitch to include surveillance tweaks in their hardware?

Jeff Pulver: The key to all of this is a core understanding of the underlying technologies and the ability for everyone involved to clearly communicate. Without a clear hailing frequency it is easy to someone to make assumptions and/or otherwise not fully understand the issues at hand. I think the FBI needs to make sure they have access to implement surveillance technologies when/if needed. In the case of VoIP the issue isn't that VoIP is becoming a safe haven for anyone but rather that methods are needed to be implemented in order to implement a "digital tap." People should understand that the laws of CALEA are of wider scope than what is defined as "telecommunications" and "information" services.

Given the world that we are living in today, I appreciate why certain government agencies would ask vendors to include surveillance tweaks in their hardware.

BBR: You've recently been trying to get the FCC to treat Free World Dial-Up as a non-regulated entity, and suggest it should be treated much like an instant messaging program. Can you elaborate on this battle?

Jeff Pulver: The battle is one of definitions. I'm looking for Free World Dialup to be declared neither "telecommunications" or a "telecommunications service" as defined by the Telecom Act of 1996. By not being telecommunication, my hope is that FWD would then be treated as an "Information Service" and not subject to Telecom regulations

BBR: You informed us that you spent last Thursday at the FCC, what was discussed? What are your major concerns?

Jeff Pulver: A summary of our discussion was filed today as required by law and should be posted to the FCC website which tracks the FWD Petition proceedings.

Spending the day in Washington D.C. brought to surface the issues that there are certain States which are becoming very aggressive about VoIP regulation and this is a source of possible future problems.

Once the Triennial review is completed and the broadband proceedings are completed, I expect the FCC will be taking a hard look at the state of VoIP in the US.

BBR: You say the states are becoming very aggressive....could you give some examples of what exactly the states are doing?

Jeff Pulver: Please see my essay (available here -Ed.) for details. Add to this the fact that earlier this week PA started a proceeding, and last Thursday the state of IL started their own proceeding....and this is a growing possible future mess.

From forum user Drosoph: Considering that FWD has essentially separated itself from the PSTN providers by not providing any integration with POTS services, what do you see as the necessary precursors to getting IP-Only providers into the homes of consumers?

Jeff Pulver: It's all about Community: friends, calling circles and business needs. Those people who discover FWD who tell their friends about who in turn start to use it create a chain of people who also have no need for POTS services for the purpose of communicating with said circle of friends.

IP-Only providers will be able to service the needs of consumers who recognize the need for such providers. This will be pulled in by consumers rather than pushed into the home by the service providers.

Drosoph question continues: If you believe that there will need to be a intermediate step, what would that be ... will the telcos be re-tooling their networks to handle BOTH IP & PSTN or will the end-users be responsible for re-tooling their homes to handle IP communications?

Jeff Pulver: Both. Depends upon the marketplace and market timings.

From Forum User Tschmidt: Does VoIP offer any hope in reducing the number of telemarketer calls?

Jeff Pulver: Yes if advanced/extended services are implemented. VoIP consumers should be able to implement call screening techniques which are more advanced than traditional telephony subscribers.

BBR: Vonage's recent announcement that they'd reached 25,000 subscribers seemed to get a lot of press, despite Free World Dial-Up hitting that number recently....if not first. Why is Vonage been so successful at capturing the headlines?

Jeff Pulver: Vonage has a great PR department and a great team behind them. FWD on the other hand only has a couple of full-time employees and is 100% dependent on the user community to support our efforts and spread our news to the press, analysts and others about what we have accomplished. With regard to the 26,675 users which we currently have (as of the end of May, 2003), FWD hasn't reached out yet to the press to share the great news. We will be issuing a press release when we get to 30,000 which we expect will happen by mid-June.

BBR: A number of third party companies...like such Northwest CLEC Kall8 for example....are adding value to free world dial-up service by providing a variety of add-on services. What are your thoughts on this?

Jeff Pulver: Personally I think this is great since this validates the FWD business model. We encourage other third-party companies to come forward and add their own set of FWD value-added services.

From forum user WhyADuck, who directs his question really at the FCC: "If you really want competition, wouldn't it be better to do everything possible to encourage the development of VoIP telephony right now? It is, after all, just about everything you've been saying you've wanted. Granted it has a few shortcomings, but that's to be expected with a brand new application of technology. Wouldn't it be better for the FCC to take a 'hands off' approach for at least a few years, at least until VoIP has significant market penetration?" Your thoughts?

Jeff Pulver: Please feel free to address the FCC on this question. It is because of the FCC's forbearance policy that we have been able to foster the growth of Internet Telephony in the United States. My hope is that the FCC will continue to Forebear.

BBR: In your opinion, how many years before we see voice over IP in the cell phone market? For example... wireless data being the main service, rather than the other way around?

Jeff Pulver: This is already happening in trials outside of the US. 18-36 months for the U.S. if not sooner.

From Forum user balaton: What would it take to add international local access numbers (i.e. a number in London, Prague, Budapest) to Libretel, so someone in Prague could dial a local number and punch in a FWD number. I guess the question is weather there are plans for setting up international gateways to FWD?

Jeff Pulver: As in (one previous question), there are unrelated 3rd parties which are adding such services. I.m aware of a startup effort in the UK to service London and over time there will be other cities covered.

BBR: As your company recently announced in a press release, you're making a push into embracing Wi-Fi and taking FWD mobile. Any news on this front?

Jeff Pulver: We have found that about 10% of the FWD community uses FWD on PCs and PDAs in Hotspots. We expect this to continue to grow.

From forum user WhyADuck: Do you see any conflict of interest in at various times helping to start Vonage, running Free World Dialup, and attempting to represent the entire VoIP industry on various issues? Please don't take that the wrong way; I'm not suggesting you've done anything wrong, but I just wonder if wearing all those different hats might cause you to have somewhat conflicting loyalties from time to time?

Jeff Pulver: The only conflict that I see is the same kind of a conflict a parent experiences when they want to be a good companion, a father, a son, an active citizen, etc. This is all about balance, good citizenship and being able to juggle and stay focused.

BBR: In your opinion, are Cable companies moving too slowly in their VoIP plans? What kind of time frame do you think we're looking at before the
telcos get involved more seriously?

Jeff Pulver: Cable companies may have moved slowly in the past but not anymore. I expect to hear about significant trials and rollouts during the 2nd half of 2003. Telcos are already seriously involved even if they haven't made a lot of noise about it.

BBR: How about Satellite providers? Echostar recently signed a deal with Net2Phone.

Jeff Pulver: IP/Satellite works quite well and provides another channel of competition.

BBR: Where Does VoIP go from here?

Jeff Pulver: Please consider walking the show floor at Fall 2003 VON in Boston to find out. Details are at pulver.com; Read The Pulver Report. It's free and 50,000+ other people read it.

As the technology goes mainstream it will be an interesting to watch how the States take to trying to regulate VoIP and the direction the FCC takes. WiFi VoIP will be interesting to watch as it evolves as will the use of VoIP inside of 3G technology platforms. If/when 4G ever happens, it will be all VoIP. You may also enjoy reading my recent Essay: Become a Broadband Parasite.

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Some of the above questions were contributed by members of our Broadband Politics and Legislation forum.