Friday, August 26, 2005

I'm from the FCC and I'm here to help

The FCC has graciously decided to extend the deadline for VOIP (Voice Over IP) phone service providers to terminate the service of customers who fail to acknowledge that they understand the emergency calling limitations of VOIP.

I could live with the FCC forcing the VOIP providers to make their customers aware of this issue, but how exactly do they think they're protecting me by forcing my provider to terminate my service if I don't respond to the notice in time? VOIP may have some limitations in terms of emergency calling, but no service at all is a whole lot more limited!

I suggest the FCC think a whole lot harder before continuing to pander to the traditional phone companies whose only source of competitive advantage is their ability to lobby and manipulate the regulators to their advantage, a phenomenon that economists call "regulatory capture" but which I call selling out the public to vested interests.

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