April 14, 2005
VoIP Regulations Goes Up In Flames
The ICANN, or Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is responsible for managing the Domain Name System and making sure that everyone receives a valid address. Although their main role is very limited, they do hold a fair amount of influence when it comes to internet products and regulation. The Chairman of the company, Dr Vinton Cerf, recently release a statement in regards to the regulation of VoIP. In this statement he is quoted stating that, "We don't regulate it." Cerf then went on to say that it would be a grave mistake to regulated VoIP like a regular PBX network. Moreover, ICANN's CEO Paul Twomey commented that VoIP service providers should not be forced to provide 911 assistance to consumers.
While I agree that legislators should not view VoIP as an extension of the telephone, there needs to be some regulations emplaced on the technology. The average consumer is not willing to put the effort into looking deeply into their service agreements. People who switch to VoIP services usually cancel their existing telephone line to save the monthly payment. More importantly, because 911 coverage has always been supported with their telephone, they see no reason why they should investigate if VoIP provides it. As a consumer, they expect a certain level of protection. In this case however, the actions of government are only going to be able to force services providers to add this feature. If the companies are not forced to pay for the emergency service, they will get away with it for as long as they can because that drives down costs. Some may call it heartless, but others just call it business. According to ZDNet:
If legislators chose to define VoIP the same way they did normal telephony, Cerf warned, "they will discover that they have legislated themselves into a pretty big corner".
Read more at: ICANN bosses slam VoIP regulation
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