VoIP Rules Prove That VoIP Rules

Written by Jay McCall

Recently, I've read a few negative articles on the subject of IP (Internet Protocol) telephony that suggest a slowdown to the progress of this technology. If you've seen those articles and have been on the fence about whether to get into the IP telephony space you may be thinking about waiting a little while longer. If that's the case, you're making a big mistake. The fact that telecommunication providers are lobbying the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and Congress to impose fees and other restrictions on IP telephony is the first clue that there's something viable about this technology. After all, why would these giants bother with some new fad technology that was just a flash in the pan? Just the opposite; they know what the analysts and IP telephony vendors are saying is true. IP telephony is here to stay and, according to the Yankee Group, its growth will overtake the adoption of traditional phone systems by 2006. Knowing that they are about to lose billions of dollars over the next few years, telecommunication providers and state regulators are scrambling to put water on the IP telephony fire with taxes and regulations. Both entities will lose billions of dollars if many telephone users make the switch from PSTNs (public switched telephone networks) to broadband-based IP telephony networks.

Even if some of the proposed legislation goes into effect tomorrow (e.g. Advanced Internet Communications Services Act), IP telephony would still be a smart move for many businesses because of the other benefits this technology offers. For example, using IP telephony, organizations can enable mobile workers to access their voice mail -- and even their e-mail -- remotely from their mobile Internet phones. Additionally, organizations can eliminate the communication difficulties of managing multiple phone systems across their distributed computing environments, and they can standardize their organizations on a single communications platform using IP telephony. And, let's not forget about how VARs can sell IP telephony to help their customers migrate their video surveillance, video conferencing, e-mail, data applications, fax communication, and phone systems to a single infrastructure rather than using four or five different communication infrastructures.

IP Telephony Regulation Is Likely To Have Minimal Impact
So, in the worst-case scenario, attaching fees to such calls would remove one of IP telephony's primary benefits: free long distance calls. But, consider where IP telephony legislation stands. Presently, various bodies within the federal government and several state governments are debating about who should be responsible for administering VoIP regulations and what kinds of regulations are appropriate. On February 12 of this year the FCC ruled that Internet services should continue to be subject to minimal regulation. As you can imagine, states don't want to accept this decision lightly. Additionally, these entities have to determine how to levy access charges on IP telephony service providers, which is going to take a long time.

The bottom line is that you shouldn't worry about IP telephony regulations ruining your chance of selling this technology. The word is getting out that IP telephony works and offers many benefits compared to its POTS (plain old telephone service) counterpart. By the time any IP telephony laws go into effect, which won't quench the benefits of this technology, you should be on your umpteenth installation anyway and ready for a comfortable retirement.