The Change Mariner

Voice Over IP

New York Times:

Politicians have worked hard to keep access to Internet connections and many forms of Internet communication free from regulation and taxation. But the debate over how government treats the Internet is likely to reach a new level of intensity now that Internet technology is colliding with one of the nation's most lucrative businesses, telephone service.

Last week AT&T and Time Warner Cable announced that they intended to make Internet-based phone service available to millions of consumers next year, allowing those consumers to bypass traditional phone companies. Those moves signaled the start of a technological shift that could change one of the biggest and most important industries in the American economy. Central to that shift is whether and how Internet phone service should be regulated, a question that the Federal Communications Commission started to explore in hearings two weeks ago.

In an interview on Thursday, Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the F.C.C., said he had not made up his mind on that question. But he was not at all shy about stating his preliminary view - that Internet-based calls are fundamentally different from traditional phone calls and ought to be regulated cautiously, if at all.