FCC DEFENDS PREEMPTION OF MICH. REGULATORS IN 2004 VONAGE ORDER

摘要

It was “entirely reasonable” for the FCC to preempt the Minn. PUC’s decision to regulate Vonage VoIP service, the agency told the 8th U.S. Appeals Court, St. Louis, in a Dec. 1 brief defending the Nov. 2004 decision. The PUC move “to regulate Vonage’s VoIP service as a telephone service conflicts with federal deregulatory policies,” the Commission said: “And because geographic location is irrelevant to the Internet and VoIP service, the [Minn. PUC] cannot as a practical matter confine its regulation to communications occurring wholly within the state.” Filing as intervenors, Vonage, Level 3 and Pacific LightNet said the case “raises important issues about the FCC’s authority to prevent Balkanization of the Internet by state actions that interfere with interstate commerce.”