Thursday, September 30, 2004 - The Progress & Freedom Foundation Blog

Rewriting the Telecom Act from KMB Videojournal

The KMB Videojournal meets twice a year in Tampa as a confab of state regulators and policy types. This session is devoted to rewriting the telecom act. The early report is that we are not quite ready to rebuild the tower of babel. That said, based on some of the comments, Jeff Pulver has reason to be scared where VoIP regulation will be headed if some of the views expressed here hold sway. The "universal service" values that have driven telecom policy from the start will not go quietly into the night. Because of this, the internal logic of regulation and universal service needs to bring any new services and platforms within its purview so as to maintain the power to tax and subsize (which 'universal service' is a pleasant euphemism for). I'll post my remarks on universal service delivered to the conference last night soon, once I clean up the written text.

posted by Ray Gifford @ 8:37 AM | General