CRITICAL PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES IMPACTING THE DEVELOPMENT ANDDELIVERY OF VOIP SERVICES

摘要

As with any telecommunications service, the regulatory treatment of Voice over InternetrnProtocol (“VoIP”) services will impact how it is provided, by whom it is provided, the costrnof service, and the features and functionality associated with the service. Public policyrnmakers around the world are currently considering the appropriate regulatory treatmentrnof VoIP services. At present, some countries have proactively abstained from applyingrnany regulation to VoIP services while other countries have applied the full panopoly ofrnpublic voice telephony regulation to VoIP services.rnThis paper considers the history of liberalization efforts and the relevance of thesernefforts to VoIP and other Internet service applications. There are three issues inrnparticular that potentially could have market-altering effects on the development andrndelivery of VoIP services. These include (1) emergency services dispatch (2) lawrnenforcement support, and (3) universal service. Consideration of these issues,rnhowever, must occur in the broader context of the Internet and not the narrow confinesrnof voice telephony.