http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1110908201.htm
Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and carriage is
starting to get additional attention in light of potential rewrites of
the 1996 Telecom Act during the 109th session of Congress, with the
House Rural Caucus Telecommunications Task Force feeling out the
business last week and the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on
Telecommunications and the Internet scheduling on open hearing on the
subject tomorrow.
The Rural Caucus' broadband-oriented Telecom Task Force, co-chaired
by Rep. Gil Gutknect (R-Minn.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), followed up
last year's briefings on future telecom challenges facing the rural
United States and universal service fund (USF) issues with a March 9
hearing on VoIP during which carriers and lobbying groups outlined
their positions surrounding VoIP in rural America.
BellSouth Chief Technology Officer Bill Smith underscored VoIP's rural
importance to his company by saying "BellSouth provides service to
more rural customers than all of the independent companies
combined," including in three states via the high cost portion of
the USF program and in six states where it receives no such
support. "With continued broadband deployment, there are now
broadband service applications that can provide people who live in
rural America with a competitive alternative to conventional voice
phone service that is comparable in both quality and functionally and
generally lower in price," he said. "Given the changes in
technology and the right economic incentives, providers will target
more and more areas to provide both broadband and VoIP services to
compete for the consumer's business."
Full story at:
http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1110908201.htm
How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home:
http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html
If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/
Jack Decker (jack-yahoogroups@withheld)