Re: Vonage Hits ISP Resistance

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

> That may be the rule in Florida, but in DC, MD, and UT
> (the states in which I've lived in the past 2
> decades), you can be be ticketed if you are driving a
> car and not wearing a seatbelt.  
This is true in CA, too.  However, the law in CA specifically provides
that if you are driving a car first registered before XXX (I don't remember
the exact year in which seatbelts became mandatory), you are exempt
as the car is not required to have seat belts.  There are many other lesser
known exceptions to the seatbelt law.  These are likely true in those other
states as well, but, I confess I haven't done detailed legal research
outside
of my own state.

> To make this a little bit more relevant to our
> VoIP/911 discussion, would we allow a startup car
> company to sell something which looked like a
> seatbelt, but was not crash rated above 5 mph?  No, of
> course we wouldn't.  Would that be anticompetitive? 
> No, it just means that to be a startup car company,
> you have to meet the same safety standards as the
> existing car companies. 
Yes... It is indeed unfortunate that the VOIP providers are choosing to look
like telcos, and, more unfortunate that they are providing a service that
looks like telephony instead of some of the real possibilities of VOIP.

> Why would these arguments not apply to VoIP?  
VOIP without 911 is not creating toxic emissions that are harmful to the
people around them.  VOIP without 911 is simply another form of
communication.
I haven't heard anyone demanding 911 service for IRC or Email.  Why should
it apply to VOIP?  Just because it's a voice service?  911 service is not
a standard feature of many voice appliances availble today.  Various two-way
radios, for example.  VOIP is VOIP.  It is _NOT_ the PSTN.  It may be that
the PSTN loses many of it's customers to VOIP.  It may be that the best
services available are those that integrate the capabilities of VOIP and
the PSTN, but, in the end, it still remains that they are different services
and should be subject to different requirements and regulations.


Owen

-- 
If it wasn't crypto-signed, it probably didn't come from me.

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