BOUCHER SUPPORTS VERIZON PLAN FOR VOIP REGULATION
Verizon’s proposed plan for determining access charges on VoIP has at least one fan on Capitol Hill: Rep. Boucher (D-Va.), a member of the House Commerce and Judiciary committees. In a National Consumer League forum on broadband Thurs., Boucher said he was “impressed” by the ideas Verizon Senior Vp Thomas Tauke presented last week on VoIP regulation (CD Jan 22 p1). Boucher stressed that reform of access charges and the Universal Service Fund (USF) was critical. Highlighting comments by Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska), who is likely to take the reins of the Commerce Committee in 2005, Boucher said Congress was likely to begin efforts next year on comprehensive reform of USF and other telecom regulations.
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Boucher endorsed Tauke’s proposed model, in which access charges would be assessed on the “old network” side of a VoIP call but not on VoIP transmission itself. As Boucher described it, a call that originated on the circuit-switched network would be subject to access charges until it crossed over to the VoIP network, where it wouldn’t be subject to access charges again unless it was routed back to the circuit-switched “old network.” Boucher said Tauke’s plan “makes a great deal of sense.”
Meanwhile, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) wants to know why it’s taking so long for the FCC to clarify what access charges apply to VoIP transport, and he told the Commission he wanted an answer by next week. In a letter to FCC Chmn. Powell, Tauzin asked why the AT&T petition requesting clarification on VoIP access charge regulations hadn’t been answered in more than a year. AT&T had inquired whether access charges applied to traffic over its IP long distance backbone. A letter signed solely by Tauzin said: “The petition did not ask the Commission to change its current rules -- it simply asked the Commission to state what its existing access charge rules require today. Yet 15 months later, the Commission has failed to answer this straightforward question.”
Tauzin said he wanted a direct answer to this question by Feb. 5: “Do the Commission’s existing access charge rules apply to the long distance service described in AT&T’s petition?” He said he wasn’t asking the FCC to rule on petitions filed by Pulver.com, Vonage or Level 3, nor whether the Commission might change the VoIP access charge rules. “I would simply like to know whether the traffic described in AT&T’s petition is subject to access charges today under the Commission’s existing rules,” Tauzin said: “Silence is not acceptable.”
AT&T said it was pleased Tauzin was taking such an interest, with a spokeswoman adding: “We'll be very interested in his response because it will be a clear signal of whether Chairman Powell intends to keep a hands-off approach on VoIP as he has indicated, or if he intends to import the highly regulatory access structure devised more than 20 years ago to subsidize the Bells’ inefficient networks. The competitive industry will finally find out if its investments in new technologies will get the same deregulatory treatment that the Bells got to incent them to make investments in their networks.”
Boucher said he was generally supportive of ideas Stevens had laid out to USTA Mon. (CD Jan 27 p1). Like Stevens, he said contributions to USF needed to be broadened and the telecom marketplace should have robust competition, but all telecom companies “need to shoulder their share of the burden.” At the same time, he was skeptical about proposals to include broadband deployment as eligible for USF funding. “I'm not sure it’s needed for broadband,” Boucher said. He said the USF program already was having trouble finding enough revenue, and more requirements could sap the fund dry. Boucher said the USF was at a “crossroads” and reform attempts would be met with “tremendous resistance” from entities that would be required to contribute more. “We'll have a very difficult task over the next few years,” he said.
Boucher said he believed local community networks could help advance rollout of broadband -- especially in rural communities -- and begin to bridge the so-called digital divide. “We need to clear the way for community networks,” he said. He spoke fondly of efforts by communities in his western Va. district to build their own broadband networks. He said the local networks, funded by local govts., gave residents broadband speed access shared by few rural communities. He also said the high-speed networks had helped attract high-tech industry. Boucher cited the court challenge that Bristol, Va., won against the state govt., which had tried to prevent the town from building its own broadband network, and said he was hopeful that the U.S. Supreme Court would rule in favor of Mo. municipalities fighting to establish networks.
Jessica Rosenworcel, adviser to FCC Comr. Copps, said the Commission needed to take seriously Sec. 706 of the Telecom Act, which says that if the agency finds that advanced services aren’t growing quickly enough, it must take “immediate action.” Rosenworcel said it had been almost 3 years since the FCC conducted a study under Sec. 706. She also said that although VoIP should be regulated mainly at the national level, there was a “legitimate sphere for states to be involved.”