Subject: [NEXTEL-1] VON COALITION POLICY CHAIRMAN VIEWS FCC's VoIP NPRM AS POSITIVE

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 23:07:46 -0500

VON COALITION POLICY CHAIRMAN VIEWS FCC's VoIP NPRM AS POSITIVE

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - After studying in more detail the FCC's
notice of proposed rulemaking on voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP)
services, the Voice on the Net Coalition is largely reassured by the
Commission's approach, said Tom Evslin, chairman and chief
executive officer of ITXC Corp. and chairman of the VON policy
committee.

"The existence of the NPRM is very healthy from our point of view,"
Mr. Evslin told TRDaily.  "Five years ago if you would have asked us
we would have said the FCC should do nothing.  In fact, other than the
Stevens Report [on VoIP issues] that's what the FCC did, very
intentionally, not negligently, and very benignly."

In a speech this morning at the Voice on the Net (VON) conference
here Mr. Evslin said one of the key signs that VoIP "has arrived" is
that some regulators want to regulate it.

Mr. Evslin told TR Daily the FCC's neglect helped the industry grow
when it was in its early stages.  "As it has grown, the fear of it has
grown among those who haven't converted quickly enough," he said.
"That's created pressure on legislators, at not only the federal but
the state level....Now regulators want to regulate and government wants
to
tax it."

Mr. Evslin added that many members of the VON Coalition were
alarmed at the hearings and regulatory investigations launched at the
state level.

"There's been a very real danger that we'd get a welter of conflicting
regulations," he said.  "The VON Coalition's position now is that the
FCC actually should take this matter up, that it's important to
establish federal jurisdiction to make sure that we don't get a lot of
inappropriate regulation at the state level.  Then we believe that the
FCC has full authority to and will regulate with an extremely light
touch because there's not much reason to regulate."

Mr. Evslin's initial reaction to the FCC's NPRM was positive, and he
said that has not changed.  "Even when we read it more closely, most
of it is still positive," he said.  "When you get down to the end
they're giving clear warning of the things that we have to worry about."

He added, "They say there are concerns on universal service funding,
concern on CALEA [the Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act], concern on disability access and all the social
issues that we're used to.  They're clearly saying that these needs and
constituencies won't be ignored."

Mr. Evslin said he believes the issues could be addressed in two
distinct stages.  First, issues such as intercarrier compensation will
be addressed through industry negotiations.  He highlighted the
Intercarrier Compensation Forum discussion in which ITXC and VoIP
interests in general have not actively participated.

"The VoIP industry hasn't claimed that we shouldn't pay intercarrier
compensation,' he noted.  "We've just said that the current situation
is a disaster.  Don't throw us in there. . . . If that happens, if there

is a  good resolution, and it looks to like there will be, then that
takes
some of the pressure off the NPRM."

Mr. Evslin said he believes there will need to be a similar agreement
on making the Universal Service Fund explicit, which he said would
need to occur "if there were VoIP or not."

He contended, "I think that's another problem that will get solved over
the next six or nine months. . . . Voice over IP providers aren't
asking  to be exempted from that so then another area of contention goes

away.'

Solving those two issues "takes an awful lot of the politics out of
what's left in the NPRM," he said, adding that issues like "911"
services, CALEA, and disability access remain serious issues, "but
they're ones that we're making real progress on."

Mr. Evslin said CALEA could prove the most difficult to address.
"CALEA is tough because there is so much that is secretive that it's
hard to have the discussions," he noted.  "ITXC as a major
international carrier gets all kinds of requests from law enforcement.
We've never had a problem complying with any legitimate request,
but I can't make a speech about the technology that we use to do that
because that would be helpful to the other side. . . . That in the end
may be our toughest negotiation because so much of the material is so
sensitive.  You don't really want to tell the bad guys how you're doing
it or where you have holes in not being able to do it."

Mr. Evslin said that in the coming months the VON Coalition will put
many hours into its comments on the NPRM.  He also said that for the
first time the coalition plans to be very active in state deliberations
and legislation affecting VoIP.  "There's a lot of education to do," he
said.

"There's a lot of listening to do.  We haven't been able to do that.
We've stayed sort of aloof from it.  That's a mistake, but we didn't
have the resources to get more involved.'" Howard Buskirk,
[email-masked]

http://www.tr.com/online/trd/2004/td033104/index.htm

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