[Asterisk-biz] Starting a Phone Service in USA

[Greg Broiles]

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 04:44:55 -0600, Rehan Ahmed <rehan1 at rehan.com> wrote:
> Any one wishes to comment on this ?
> 
> Rehan
> 
> ------- Forwarded message follows -------
> Date sent:              Wed, 5 Jan 2005 14:14:19 -0500 (EST)
> From:                   FCCInfo <FCCInfo at fcc.gov>
> Send reply to:          FCCInfo <FCCInfo at fcc.gov>
> To:                     linda at supertec.com
> Subject:                PROBLEM00927674 - clec licence application
> Organization:           FCC
> 
> You are receiving this email in response to your inquiry to the FCC.
> 
> DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL
> 
>    For information on providing telecom service see: www.fcc.gov/wcb/filing.html
> 
>    *Any person, or entity, that provides domestic
>    interstate or foreign communications services to the
>    general public, for a fee, is considered to be a
>    common carrier; no matter how the services are provided.
[...]

It's not really clear what your question is, but I wouldn't be
surprised if relates to the statement quoted directly above.

The problem with the statement is that it looks like it's written in
English - it's actually written in the FCC's dialect of legalese.
Unfortunately, legalese looks a lot like English, so people who read
or speak English (quite reasonably) think they can understand
legalese.

Now, I am not a telecom attorney, and don't follow FCC rulings
carefully, but it's my understanding that, per the FCC's response to
Jeff Pulver's petition, it has been clarified that FWD (and, by
extension, many or all VoIP providers) is not a "telecommunications
service" but an "information service", which is a class of service
provider that's less regulated, or unregulated, from the FCC's point
of view.

(The ruling is available at
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-04-27A1.pdf>.)

In that context, I would be very careful about jumping to the
conclusion that VoIP is a "communications service" discussed in the
paragraph quoted above. My hunch is that it is *not* a "communications
service", even though that seems like a reasonable interpretation of
the English text.

-- 
Greg Broiles, JD, EA
gbroiles at gmail.com (Lists only. Not for confidential communications.)
Law Office of Gregory A. Broiles
San Jose, CA