In February, the US Federal Communications Commission launched an inquiry into the rules and regulations that will govern the budding internet phone service industry. But companies feared that cash-strapped US states would also try to regulate and tax the sector.
Republican Senator John Sununu announced on Friday that he would be introducing a bill into the Senate later this week that will reserve the right to regulate IP telephony, also known as VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol, to the federal government. If passed, the new legislation would be known as the VoIP Regulatory Freedom Act.
The bill aims to limit the controls that could be posed on the technology by the FCC, and also requires VoIP companies linking into the telephone system to accommodate law enforcement wiretaps. The interception requirements would not apply to purely internet-based services.
A similar bill was introduced into the House of Representatives on Friday by Congressman Charles Pickering.
AT&T welcomed the announcement. Peter Jacoby, the telco's VP of Congressional Affairs, said that the bills present "a deregulatory approach that both acknowledges the need to reform the current subsidy system and allows this nascent service to flourish and bring the benefits of competition and innovation to the telecommunications marketplace."
Comcast Corporation commended Senator Sununu and Rep Pickering "for their leadership on VOIP telephony policy." It added, "Keeping VOIP free of the kind of regulation developed for a monopoly telephone era is essential to ensure that VOIP investment will continue and competition will grow".