IP Convergence: Beyond VoIP, Beyond Cost Savings

2008 holds the potential to be a landmark year for telecommunications regulation – if the FCC is willing to take action on the issues before it. A quick look shows the FCC has a lot on its plate. There are the long-standing issues of inter-carrier compensation (yes this docket was initiated in April 2001 and there is still no resolution to it) and special access reform (yes this docket was initiated in October 2002 and there is still no resolution to it either). Both of these issues take on a new urgency with the competing Petitions for Forbearance filed by Feature Group IP and Embarq regarding the application of access to charges to IP services and the coming expiration of Verizon’s merger commitments on special access. Then there are the dual petitions from Vuze and Free Press on traffic management and peer-to-peer traffic that the FCC just put out on public notice. Finally, there is the Joint Board proposal on universal service reform (an issue that has been around since the 1913 Kingsbury Commitment and was supposed to be addressed immediately following passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996).

If the FCC wanted to, it could address all of these issues in 2008 and redefine the telecommunications landscape for the next several decades. I realize that is wishful thinking and unrealistic under the best of circumstances, but at some point someone needs to recognize that the FCC regulates an industry that generates a trillion dollars in economic activity, directly employs one million people, and is responsible for deploying and operating the infrastructure that will support so much of the future global economy. Is it too much to ask for the government to address critical policy issues impacting this industry in less than ten years? Think of the costs of inaction to the economy.

At a time when so many politicians are calling for “change”, a welcome change would be for the FCC to take the action this industry so urgently needs to move forward.