Industry Groups Urge 8th Circuit to Keep Light Touch for VoIP
Treating VoIP as an information service is good public policy, said phone, cable and VoIP industry associations in amicus briefs at the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in docket 17-2290. In a joint brief (in Pacer), USTelecom, the Voice…
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on the Net Coalition, AT&T and Verizon supported FCC comments that allowing the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to regulate VoIP as it seeks to do for Charter Communications would be bad for the market (see 1710300036). “Preemption of state common-carrier, public utility regulation does not give VoIP providers an unfair advantage in the marketplace, but instead puts VoIP providers on an equal footing with wireless providers and over-the-top or nomadic VoIP providers, both of which are exempt from such regulation,” the phone and VoIP providers said. Pre-empting states wouldn’t harm VoIP customers because the FCC "repeatedly held that VoIP providers remain obligated to comply with a robust array of statutory consumer protections, including 911 access, universal service contributions, and accommodations for subscribers with disabilities,” they said. NCTA also urged (in Pacer) the 8th Circuit to uphold the lower court’s ruling that VoIP is an information service. “While the FCC’s light-touch framework has been instrumental to the successful roll-out of VoIP," said the cable association, "the application of state regulations designed for traditional local exchange services … would stymie the competition and innovation Congress and the FCC set out to foster."