Time Warner Nets VoIP Win at FCC

TIME WARNER NETS VOIP WIN AT FCC
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Time Warner Cable won a regulatory battle at the Federal Communications Commission Thursday over state regulators in Nebraska and South Carolina, which had been frustrating the cable company’s ability to compete in rural phone markets. In a staff ruling endorsed by FCC chairman Kevin Martin, the agency concluded that Time Warner is allowed to use third-party telecommunications carriers as an indirect means of exchanging voice traffic with market-dominant phone incumbents. Time Warner offers local phone service by relying on voice-over-Internet-protocol technology. Because the FCC hasn't classified cable VoIP as a telecommunications service, Time Warner’s VoIP product hasn't had the federal right to interconnect directly with phone incumbents. As a result, Time Warner cut deals with companies with interconnection rights to ensure that its customers may communicate with customers of phone incumbents. South Carolina and Nebraska regulators, however, refused to recognize the interconnection rights of wholesales with which Time Warner signed contracts, causing the MSO to seek a ruling from the agency.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6420646.html?display=Breaking+News

* FCC Grants Internet Phone Access
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR200703...
* FCC sides with cable phone firms
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070302/2b_ruralphone02.art.htm

* FCC Order: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-07-709A1.doc
* Chairman Martin: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-270985A1.doc