Vonage ruling could speed up telecom reform
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MANHASSET, NY The Federal Communication Commission&#39;s decision Tuesday (Nov. 9) to classify voice-over-IP (VoIP) as an interstate, federally regulated service could go
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Local carriers must allow Internet telephony service by rivals, contrary to state rulings.
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BISMARCK, ND - State regulators have delayed a ruling about whether an Internet access provider should be treated as a phone company, saying they will wait for a federal decision on the issue.
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Customers want the service, changes are in the works, and counting Vonage out could be a mistake.
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The FCC decides that cable, phone and other companies offering internet-based phone services fall under federal jurisdiction. The company calls the ruling a victory for consumers.
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A divided Federal Communications Commission passed rules Wednesday restricting local phone competition. The move is expected to raise prices for many consumers across the country and for small businesses in larger cities.
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Asks if provisions for 'workaround' are appropriate The black clouds that for the last three months have been hanging over VOIP service provider Vonage parted ever so slightly today, allowing through the tiniest sliver of sunshine as a federal appeals judge raised the possibility of a compromise in its patent war with Verizon.â¦
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An appeals court agreed with a lower court decision that ruled VoIP is a data service and, as such, can&#39;t be regulated by states.
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U.S. regulators ruled Tuesday that providers of Internet-based phone call services fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, exempting them from some key regulation by states.
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BREAKING NEWS - It may be extremely slim comfort for VoIP services provider Vonage in the wake of yesterday's total loss in the patent infringement suit brought against it by Sprint Nextel, but Vonage will take it nonetheless: A federal appeals court upheld today only two of the three patent infringement decisions in last March's case brought on by Verizon, remanding the third to a lower court for retrial.
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(InfoWorld) - SkypeÂ is looking to a 1968 ruling by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to open up the country's mobile phone industry for "unlocked" devices and third-party applications -- such as Skype. The eBayÂ unit, a pioneer in peer-to-peer VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol), petitioned the FCC this week to affirm that the landmark Carterphone decision applies to the cellular world. That ruling, which involved an early type of wireless handset, said carriers couldn't stop consumers from attaching any device to the wired telecommunications network as long as it couldn't do any damage. Letting any device connect to cellular networks would gradually open the door to a wide range of new choices for consumers, including handsets that use VOIP for voice calls over operators' 3G (third-generation) data networks. Almost all cellphones in use on mobile networks in the U.S. are sold by the operators and locked so they can't be used on another provider's network. But Skype's proposal also would stop carriers from blocking or forbidding applications on 3G networks -- again, as long as those applications can't damage the network. The plan cuts to the heart of mobile operators' revenue stream, which still predominantly comes from voice calls and also depends on exclusive ringtone, music, video, and other services offered by the carriers. But there's no reason the earlier ruling on the wireline phone network shouldn't apply to mobile, according to Christopher Libertelli, Skype's senior director for government and regulatory affairs. In addition, preventing carriers from blocking outside applications is in keeping with the FCC's policy on network neutrality, he said. Cellular providers have always had closed networks, but the rollout of 3G makes possible many more uses of those networks, he said. "What we're trying to do is get in front of that trend so that policy is set in the correct way," Libertelli said. In addition to the new rules, Skype proposed an industry forum to determine what types of devices are harmful to the wireless network. The mobile industry promptly slammed Skype's petition. It would freeze innovation, according to a statement by Steve Largent, president and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), an industry group. "Skype's self-interested filing contains glaring legal flaws and a complete disregard for the vast consumer benefits provided by the competitive marketplace," Largent said. Skype's Libertelli said the company has a big job to do in educating cellular companies and others but believes the change would help carriers by creating new uses for their networks. It's hard to predict how the FCC may respond to Skype's petition, said Johna Till Johnson, president of Nemertes Research, in Mokena, Illinois. In recent years the agency has been alternately supportive and wary of disruptive technologies, she said. It might even drag its heels on making a ruling, not wanting to be drawn into a big political fight. It's most likely to come down somewhere in the middle, Johnson believes. Though the cost of phone calls might fall if Skype won, there could be a downside: Without the incentive of selling their captive services, cellular companies might be less motivated to upgrade their networks, Johnson said. Skype expects the agency to put the petition out for public comment and response, a process that would take several weeks.
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Blog: New legislation has been introduced in the Senate that could help expedite the process of transferring your existing phone number to another voice provider.
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New rules that come into force on Wednesday should make it easier to switch broadband supplier.
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U.S. communications regulators on  Tuesday exempted Internet telephone services from certain state  oversight, a boon for Vonage Holdings Corp. and other providers  aggressively pushing the new service.
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Troubled VoIP service provider Vonage is rolling out new products and services at the Consumer Electronics Show in a bid to reverse its downward spiral.Intellectual property lawsuits brought by Nortel, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&amp;T have distracted Vonage for the past year. During that time, customer acquisition slowed, and defections grew to 3 percent in the third quarter last year.But Vonage says it is ready to turn a corner. The suits were a weapon that the phone companies used to defend their businesses in the face of competition from Vonage, said Jeffrey Citron, chairman, chief strategist and interim CEO at Vonage. &quot;It was a successful strategy. It distracted us and slowed us down,&quot; he said. &quot;Instead of rolling out MyVonage six months ago, we were dealing with workarounds.&quot; MyVonage is the name of a new campaign at the company to introduce a host of services geared toward customer lifestyles.While the lawsuits were ongoing, the company was developing workaround technology that would allow its business to move forward without infringing on the relevant patents. Vonage has now settled all four major lawsuits against it.That has left Vonage free to spend more time focusing on its business, said Citron. It hired new engineers who designed a router, the first time Vonage will sell its own router rather than one from Cisco or Motorola.The router has an unusual feature: a screen. It displays information about problems that the modem might have in plain language. For instance, rather than showing a flashing light like most routers, this one displays words telling users that the Ethernet cable is unplugged.New customers will be able to buy the V-Portal router online starting Wednesday for $9.99 after rebates.In addition to the new router, Vonage is beginning to roll out many new features that it is showcasing at alpha.vonage.com. For instance, customers can now use voice-activated dialing, simply speaking a name to place a call. Customers can also send a voice message to anyone via e-mail. The message arrives as an attached audio file.Call blast is a new feature that lets customers send out a voice mail simultaneously to a group of people. Citron anticipates that will be useful when he&#39;s in charge of calling 15 kids who go to school with his kids to tell them there is a snow day.&quot;We expect to roll out a new capability every month or two,&quot; Citron said.Vonage also plans to offer another service that lets users access the voice recognition system from any phone to make a call through Vonage. The company is also testing software that would let customers make Vonage calls via software on their laptops.Many of these services are free to Vonage customers.Citron said that the future for Vonage will be brighter. Despite continued high churn, last quarter it had a gain of 77,000 customers, which he says isn&#39;t as good as it should be. The company has worked to cut costs, and improvements in customer service should help decrease customer losses, he said.In the meantime, speculation continues to circle that the payouts Vonage made to settle the lawsuits will cripple it. But Citron was confident that the company&#39;s troubles are behind it.
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NEW YORK - You could almost hear the sighs of relief when the US Federal Communications Commission ruled on Tuesday that Internet-based phone services should be regulated by the federal government, not by the states.
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In what amounts to a big win for Vonage Holdings Corp., the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday ruled that the broadband phone company&#39;s service was exempt from state and local regulation and tariffs.