Aug. 8, 2005 – Due to two rulings last week by the Federal Communications Commission, over the next eighteen months consumers with high-speed DSL Internet and Internet-based telephone systems might be paying a little more for those services.
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In statements Friday, the FCC announced two significant rule changes. One ends years of government-mandated requirements that phone companies allow broadband Internet access providers low-cost access to the network of high-speed-capable lines crisscrossing the country. The second forces certain providers of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) telephone service and "facilities-based" broadband Internet access to conform with pre-existing laws forcing cooperation between communications companies and law enforcement agencies.
Both rules are likely to open the door for higher rates as the major phone companies set line-use rates higher and the costs are passed along to the consumer, public advocacy groups charge. The telephone line deregulation goes into effect in one year. VoIP and broadband companies have a year and a half to comply with the new wiretap law interpretation, according to the FCC.
Jeannine Kenney, an analyst with Consumers’ Union, the nonprofit organization that publishes Consumer Reports, warned that deregulating the relationship between cable companies and telecom giants will force independent internet service operators out of business, raise prices for consumers and potentially lead to near-monopoly market behavior by communications companies, the Associated Press reports.
The rule would allow telephone companies to set rates for high-speed line use or even prohibit competitors’ access to the lines altogether. Those companies have been pushing for such a change for years, arguing that their counterpart providers in the cable broadband market have been free to deny access to independent resellers, creating an imbalance between the competing technologies.
In a statement responding to the new regulations on Internet wiretapping, Kurt Opsahl, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an open communications freedom advocacy group, said that forcing companies to open up their systems to government snooping creates a security problem and "endangers the privacy of innocent people, stifles innovation and risks the functionality of the Internet as a forum for free and open expression."
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According to the FCC, VOIP phone systems that only connect to other internet-based telephones would be exempted from the requirement. Friday’s decision extended the reach of the Communications Assistance for Law enforcement Act of 1994. That law mandated that phone companies make wiretapping easier for law enforcement agencies but exempted internet transmissions.
