Congress targets VoIP again in USF bill

It doesn't matter how successful or innovative you might be, at some point in the growth of an industry the government is going to want to get a piece of the action. And then they are going to want more. Congress is holding hearings today to revise details of the Universal Service Fund (USF) act and their changes might effect certain VoIP providers. Congress members are deciding on whether to include a requirement that VoIP providers must contribute to the USF in states where their customers live.

The draft USF bill currently being discussed would give states the power to force any company providing communications services within their state to contribute to the fund. The definition would include VoIP providers--particularly Internet-based VoIP providers--and in some ways that's what the languages is targeting. Oregon Public Utility Commissioner Ray Baum who testified in front of the congressional committee reviewing the bill didn't mince words: "The FCC has the authority now to eliminate the need for the new definition of 'communications service provider' by making a long-overdue final classification of the status of facilities-based and so-called nomadic VoIP providers,” Baum said in a prepared statement.

The USF is designed to subsidize phone service to rural communities, the poor, schools and libraries. Legacy telcos and VoIP providers pay part of their interstate and international revenues into the fund. And while the FCC does get some funds from VoIP companies, up until now rulings have gone against states trying to get funds from companies providing communication services within their borders. A while back Vonage won an exemption from paying USF fees because it claimed to be an information service.

For more:
- read more at Telephony

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