FCC 'Frees' Free World Dialup VoIP Service

The Federal Communications Commission took a baby step forward in Voice over Internet Protocol regulation today, by rulingthat the Free World Dialup service was not subject to traditional voice-service regulations.

While proponents of VoIP were quick to hail the decision as a move toward keeping the technology free of regulation, FCC chairman Michael Powell and other commissioners made it clear that more-robust VoIP services that connect to the circuit-switched voice networks may be subject to the regulations and fees imposed on existing voice services.

"While IP-enabled services should remain free from traditional monopoly regulation, rules designed to ensure law enforcement access, universal service, disability access, and emergency 911 service can and should be preserved in the new architecture," said Powell in a statement.

In separate actions Thursday, the commission announced the first Internet policy working group "solutions summit," part of an ongoing public-debate period that the commission would use to help it decide how it might apply discrete regulatory requirements where necessary.

"We will be asking leaders in the law-enforcement, first-responder and disabled communities to come together to talk about creative ways to address some of these issues," Powell said in a statement. The first summit, scheduled for March 18, will focus on how emergency 911 services can be implemented in VoIP applications.Jeff Pulver, CEO of Pulver.com, had filed a petition with the FCC last year asking that the FCC declare that the Free World Dialup service (which allows free Internet-based phone calls between computers running the FWD software) is "neither telecommunications nor a telecommunications service." In granting the petition today by a split vote, the FCC took its first real action in defining regulation for VoIP applications.

"I am extremely pleased that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted the Free World Dialup petition this morning," said Pulver, in a statement posted on his personal weblog. "The Commission should be commended for providing key and necessary clarification that the FWD computer-to-computer VoIP service is not a telecommunicationsservice. By doing this, the FCC has sent a strong signal to consumers and capital markets that the FCC is not interested in subjectingend-to-end IP Communications services to traditional voice telecom regulation under the Communications Act. It is indeed a great day forthe Internet!"

But commissioner Michael Copps, one of the dissenting voters Thursday, castigated the other FCC members for the Pulver vote, saying the commission was leaping before it looked long enough at the issues surrounding VoIP.

"The Commission declares that Free World Dialup is an information service but does not address any of the consequences of its decision," Copps said in a statement. The action, he said, "presents stark challenges for law enforcement and has implications for universal service, public safety and state and federal relationships that we have yet to untangle or assess."