<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 3/3/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Paul</b> <<a href="mailto:ast2005@9ux.com">ast2005@9ux.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>Do you think states rights issues could become a significant issue?<br><br>Do states already have any clearly defined rights in regard to the<br>number space within their area codes? Can they prevent a CLEC from<br>selling DID's to efax, vonage, and others who have no presence in the state?
</blockquote><div><br>I am unsure of the rulings, but under the constitution itself, there is the "interstate and foreign commerce" clause, this allows the federal government to regulate anything that is involved in interstate or foreign commerce. Now while this goes a bit off of any voip related business discussion, but bears on the conversation as a whole, this is the single most abused clause. Drug statues say that since congress cant tell the difference between drugs that are and drugs that are not involved in interstate or foreign commerce, all of them are. Firearms have a similar provision where the steel comes from PA and goes to CT for colt firearms so its federal for life. No other products are treated this way, so they are special but they set a way of thinking that allows the government to make silly rulings.
<br><br>The dialup access charge situation in the late 90s determined that a phone call does not terminate at the modem bank instead it terminates at the webpage, which is often in a different state so the feds said they have total power to regulate. VoIP calls now are deemed to always be interstate or international because some calls cross (re the USF contributions and the general decisions that allow the FCC to regulate you even if you do local only calls).
<br><br>PUCs are losing power, the FCC is grabbing power, and while I dont know the specific answer offhand, I would imagine that if a PUC tried to restrict numbers to only entities in that geographic area it would result in a lawsuit and the FCC would step in and who knows what will happen then.
<br><br><br></div><br></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Trixter <a href="http://www.0xdecafbad.com">http://www.0xdecafbad.com</a> Bret McDanel<br>Belfast +44 28 9099 6461 US +1 516 687 5200<br><a href="http://www.trxtel.com">
http://www.trxtel.com</a> the VoIP provider that pays you!