VoIP's place in the sun

The Federal Communications Commission handed Internet calling an early Christmas present today, saying that the technology will not be subject to state regulation. That's already making companies like Vonage breathe a deep sigh of (regulatory) relief, since it means they won't have to face the proverbial patchwork quilt of different state rules.

From the point of view of efficiency for VoIP itself, this has to be a good thing. Tech folks are fond of saying that regulations stunt the growth of new technologies, and this one certainly has promise.

But there's another thing tech folks often say: Government shouldn't pick technologies through regulation. We're in the strange position here of regulating regular voice service, cell phone networks, and VoIP all very differently, even though they are increasingly doing the same thing. I'd say we're picking a technology for sure, by giving VoIP benefits that other phone services don??t get.

I'm not advocating more or less regulation. But I think consistency across application is increasingly looking like a good idea, and this patchwork (yeah, it's a patchwork, it's just a federal one) is looking like a mess. We've written about the idea of rewriting communications laws so that they work in a "layered" approach. This means phone calls would be regulated the same across the board, data transmission would be regulated the same whether its on a telephone line, a cable TV network, or a satellite, and so on.

I figure with all this change in the air, it's time to make communications make sense.