Summary
The state of Kansas wants to require voice over IP customers to pay the fees that ordinary landline subscribers are required to pay, but the FCC has concluded that states may not require those fees for VoIP customers. VoIP is largely exempt from communications regulations because it uses a completely different technology.
Original source:
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2005/02/07/daily44.html?jst=b_ln_hl
Details
The Federal Communications Commission has directed Kansas lawmakers to water down proposed legislation aimed at assessing state fees on Internet-based phone services.
On Friday, the Kansas House Utilities Committee held its first hearing on the bill, which would require customers of Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) to pay monthly fees that finance two state subsidy programs.
An FCC staff analysis concluded that a state can't require VoIP customers to pay into the state universal service fund, Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, said in testimony Friday.
The universal service fund is financed by fees on monthly phone bills to help subsidize rural phone service.
The Kansas bill, introduced by the Utilities Committee, also would require that VoIP customers pay 50 cents a month to finance enhanced 911 services that can pinpoint a caller's location from any phone line.
Opponents of the legislation include startup VoIP providers such as Overland Park-based Nuvio Corp. and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWX), which uses VoIP to provide phone service.
They argue that it is technologically impossible to pinpoint where a VoIP caller is when they call 911, other than using their billing address.
Talley said the FCC should decide the fate of 911 fees when the problem eventually is solved.
He expressed concern that the state 911 fees would not be used to buy equipment to find VoIP calls -- because the technology doesn't exist.
Judy Moler, general counsel of the Kansas Association of Counties, said public policy will force
VoIP companies to come up with a technology that can find where a 911 call is placed.
"We need to be aware that technology changes," she said.
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Monday, February 21, 2005
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