A new lobby group has been set up in an attempt to influence the regulation of internet telephony in Europe.
Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition Europe, which comprises large suppliers like Google, Intel, Microsoft and Skype, was launched on Friday following regulatory proposals made by the European Commission a month ago. These proposals included the idea that all VoIP providers should enable calls to the emergency services. The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has since mandated that such access must be made available by September 2008.
Leading VoIP providers, such as Skype, disagree with such proposals, arguing that VoIP is a complement to, rather than a replacement for, traditional telephony services.
According to a Friday statement, VON Coalition Europe "will work to educate, inform and promote responsible government policies that enable innovation and the many benefits that internet voice innovations can deliver".
"Internet-enabled communications are an entirely new genre of communications products, services and applications and a new frontier in communications for individuals and businesses alike," said Stephen Collins, director of global governmental and regulatory affairs at Skype. "In order to unleash their vast benefits, policymakers need to embrace forward-thinking policy approaches."
"If we automatically subject this new technology to legacy telephone regulation, consumers and business users could miss out on the new services, increased choices, better prices and improved features that VoIP, for example, can deliver," Collins said.
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In its statement, the coalition claimed that the "premature application of 112 [emergency call] rules to websites, click-to-dial services, one-way PSTN-out interconnected voice services, and other VoIP services that are not a replacement for traditional home/business phone services could actually harm public safety, stifle innovations critical to people with disabilities, stall competition, and limit access to innovative and evolving communication options where there is no expectation of placing a 112 call".
The European Commission could offer no comment at the time of writing.
Talkback
I agree with the coalition that at the moment the use of VOIP is complementary to "normal" PSTN telephone services. However, at the rate of progress this could change very quickly, consider the technologies coming along
- WiMax - with its high bandwidth long range connection (70km)
- Linux on Mobiles / Existing smartphones and even Wifi PDAs
WiMax being a data technology which has voice support built in it is ideal for mobile devices (except for the current lack of mobile networks or devices and high power drain - just like 3G phones at launch then).
So, a PDA with a Wimax connection and Skype could be the new mobile phone and it is good to see the regulators have the vision to see that VOIP is likely to become the telephone network of tomorrow.
This is a tough question, because while I agree with the previous post that VoIP is set to become the vehicle of choice in the coming years, I also believe that the regulators must realise that if they impose mandatory requirements at such an early stage it could serve to slow the progress of this important technology.
Today I would not consider VoIP without having a backup. We have 2 US locations and 1 UK location using VoIP as our primary telephones, but in all cases we have local backup lines. Given the current state of technology I would not use 999 on my VoIP lines in any case.
I believe that a better approach would be to make the rule a non-mandatory guideline, allowing the market another 24 months to settle out and the new technologies to come in. Coupled with this might be a requirement to provide a more visible warning to prospective users making them agree (legally) to an understanding that there will be no 999 coverage.
Given this approach the larger companies would most likely go ahead with the addition of 999. It may be that after that time the customer base should be allowed to opt in or out of 999 service, but I think a mandatory rule is premature.
David Brown
Jasmine Partners LLC