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Michael Gallagher
(Dept. of Commerce):
 | We should keep three things in mind – Gravity (of the issue),
Responsibility (in developing appropriate regulatory regime) and Speed
(with which we develop it). |
 | Opex is 30% less and capex is 50% less for VoIP networks compared to
PSTN. |
Carl Wood (California PUC):
 | Regulation is not “on” or “off” |
 | One can have gradation of regulation |
Charles Davidson (Florida PUC):
 | VoIP is borderless in nature |
 | Need to regulate only those services used by VoIP |
 | No “economic” regulation |
 | Same regulatory constraint for all the players |
 | Classification of three scenarios: End-to-end IP, Interconnect to PSTN
and IP as transport for PSTN. Economic regulation depends on the scenario.
 | One of the well stated
points. Without this, it is conceivable that incumbents will use CESoIP
and undermine the current regulatory regime. |
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 | E911 service must be accessible by every one; cost shared by all. |
 | Universal Service Fund is necessary due to national policy. So as the
nation moves towards alternate technologies, the new entrants must
contribute to this fund. Segments contributing to this fund must be the
beneficiary.
 | Almost there. Every one
agrees that there will be many modes of communication; all of them are
based on IP and could be used to contact emergency agency. So why focus
on just VoIP. E911 and USF should be applicable to IP access rather than
one or more applications. |
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James Crowe (Level3):
 | VoIP service providers must facilitate public services like E911 and
CALEA. |
Tom Evslin (ITXC):
 | There is no need for regulation because there is no monopoly. |
 | Cell phones have more features than landline phones because the former
are unregulated.
 | This is a great line, but
it is not clear to me what these features are. Is he confusing between
phone based features with those facilitated by the service providers? |
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 | ITXC has supported all reasonable and legal intercept requests. |
Jeffrey Citron (Vonage):
 | CALEA: There are many other IP Communications that are outside the
scope of CALEA |
 | E911: The industry is working on it. |
 | USF: Vonage pays on behalf of their subscribers. It is better if its
contributions are used to deploy broadband access network. |
 | Access charges: The access charge regime needs major repair. So
instead of applying broken rules to VoIP, we should revisit the basic
issue. |
Gregg Vanderheiden (U. of Wisconsin):
 | New technology often causes people with disabilities to lose access if
left to voluntary participation |
Follow-up Discussion:
 | Powell asked about the inability to differentiate between interstate
and intrastate calls. Wood felt that the situation is similar to wireless
which has a component of intrastate regulation, but Citron disagreed
saying there is no way to ascertain jurisdiction. |
 | Abernathy wanted to know if non-regulation will be equally applicable
to everyone (including the incumbents). Both Evslin and Citron replied in
the affirmative; Crowe interjected to say that interconnection must be
regulated; Gallagher emphasized that carriers must not impede other
service providers. |
 | Copps wanted to know how to address the power issue. Evslin remarked
that recent events show that IP survives better. Powell tried to point out
that the question is related to powering the end device. Crowe remarked
that one network can not be the strongest. Interconnected networks is our
strength. |
 | In response to a question from Martin regarding the timetable for
regulation, many responded that clarity on regulation is needed as soon as
possible. There was a talk about forbearance, some sort of legalese. Powel
cautioned that it is not a simple matter; looks like forbearance is
applied one regulation at a time and hence a time consuming matter. |
 | In response to Adelstein’s question, Davidson reiterated that economic
regulation is not necessary, but regulations regarding CALEA and
disability are necessary. Crowe remarked that voluntary regulation is not
sufficient and noted that a data bit costs 1/30 to 1/25 of a voice bit.
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