TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Firms Rush to Provide 'Net Phone Services'

Firms Rush to Provide 'Net Phone Services'

Jack Decker (jack-yahoogroups@withheld)
Wed, 02 Mar 2005 12:20:12 -0500

http://www.mlive.com/business/aanews/index.ssf?/base/business-3/110977813099930.xml

Firms rush to provide 'Net phone services
FCC decision barring state regulation starts surge

BY SCOTT ANDERSON
News Business Reporter

With a recent federal decision barring state officials from regulating
Internet phone calling, an onslaught of both household-name companies
and unknowns are jumping into the Michigan market to provide it.

Firms as big as Qwest Communications Inc. and lesser-known but rapidly
growing Internet firms like Vonage are all rushing to provide voice
over Internet protocol -- known as VOIP -- to residential and business
customers in the Ann Arbor area and across the state.

To place calls via the Internet, customers first need to have a
high-speed speed connection, often in the form of digital cable or
digital subscriber lines, known as DSL. With it, the often
lower-priced VOIP services provide unlimited local and long-distance
service across the country using the Internet. The technology also
allows customers to check voicemails using e-mail, among other
services.

There were nine companies in Michigan providing VOIP as of the end of
2004, according to a list compiled by state regulators. But that
number is growing, following a ruling by the Federal Communications
Commission to keep VOIP providers immune from state regulation. Vonage
and other small firms successfully argued regulation would drive up
costs to consumers.

"It kind of was a green light for us to go into these areas where we
had no presence," said Brooke Schulz, spokeswoman for New Jersey-based
Vonage.

Full story at:
http://www.mlive.com/business/aanews/index.ssf?/base/business-3/110977813099930.xml

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/

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Telecom dailyLead from USTA: "MCI to Review Qwest Bid"
Go to Previous message: Lisa Minter: "BTK Serial Killer Caught from Church Computer Disk"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page