Britain’s VoIP industry unveiled a code of practice for Internet ...
Britain’s VoIP industry unveiled a code of practice for Internet telephony providers Tues. at a parliamentary reception in London. The code was created by the Internet Telephony Services Providers Assn. (ITSPA), which represents network operators, service providers and other…
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businesses involved in supplying VoIP in the U.K. According to a draft, the code requires that ITSPA members: (1) Not promote use of their services for illegal purposes and take appropriate steps to guard against such uses. (2) Take reasonable steps to ensure that promotional materials comply with applicable laws and rules. (3) Warn residential customers that power failures or other failures of a customer’s underlying data network may cause voice-over-data-networks services to fail. (4) Advise residential customers of significant differences in service reliability between VoIP services and circuit- switched public telephony networks. (5) Give customers clear information when a service doesn’t provide access to emergency calls or isn’t as reliable as circuit-switched public telephony. (6) Notify customers when a member can’t offer number portability. The code of practice outlines information to appear in customer contracts and defines a process for handling complaints about code breaches. The Dept. of Trade & Industry (DTI) is “very positive” about VoIP’s potential benefits for business and consumers; it could spur more use of broadband, DTI’s Claire Hobson said. VoIP is one of the first major policy decisions the Office of Communications (Ofcom) tackled in its first year, said Andrew Heaney. Ofcom’s final decision on whether and how to regulate VoIP awaits European Commission guidance, he said.