FCC Probes Comcast's Phone Practices - NYTimes.com

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

I agree with Gerry. However I would not say "This discussion of  
Comcast's VoIP offering, especially by the FCC, is disingenuous (at  
least) and silly (at most)". -- discussion is always appropriate.. djf


Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gerry Faulhaber" <gerry-faulhaber () mchsi com>
Date: January 21, 2009 6:39:02 PM EST
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  FCC Probes Comcast's Phone Practices -  
NYTimes.com

Dave [for IP]

This discussion of Comcast's VoIP offering, especially by the FCC, is  
disingenuous (at least) and silly (at most).  Comcast owns/leases  
intercity physical facilities which it uses for transmission of its  
own programmng, its Internet traffic, and anything else it wants to  
use it for.  It has made it extremely clear that its own VoIP service  
is not routed over its Internet facilities but rather its non-Internet  
(but still Comcast) facilities; in fact, they brag about this on their  
website, and have done so for years.  Since the VoIP calls are routed  
on their own non-Internet facilities, they can guarantee better  
service (they claim) than Internet VoIP.  They are not offering an  
Internet VoIP with preferential service; they are offering VoIP on  
their proprietary network.  Last I heard, this is perfectly legal,  
ethical, moral, what-have-you.  I believe that all large cable  
companies, and telcos, do the same thing.  After all, it is their  
network and they can use it to offer whatever services they want.  And  
they do not have to make their proprietary (i.e., non-Internet)  
network available commercially if they wish not to.  Again, all  
perfectly legal, ethical, moral, what-have-you.  To the point: since  
Comcast VoIP is not offered as an Internet service, network neutrality  
is simply not an issue.

Now the offer of VoIP over these proprietary networks comes under the  
FCC rubric of "enhanced" services, not subject to Title II regulation  
under Computer Inquiry III rules, and thus not "telephone" service.   
This is the same exemption that Vonage and Skype have.  Whether the  
enhanced service is offered over a network labelled Internet or one  
labelled proprietary makes no difference; it is still an enhanced  
service in the sense of Computer Inquiry III. If in fact the FCC were  
to find that VoIP over a proprietary network must pay intercarrier  
comp, universal service fund contributions, and all the usual  
telephone paraphernalia, I can guarantee you that Vonage and Skype  
would soon have the same obligations, and Internet telephony, and  
probably the Internet itself, would be swept up into Title 2  
regulation.  Since no one wants this (for good reason) the FCC  
claiming that Comcast might be subject to such telephony fees is a  
transparent bluff (at best) and downright dangerous (at worst),

Professor Gerald Faulhaber
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania 


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