TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: SPRING VON: Vonage CEO slams VOIP blocking


SPRING VON: Vonage CEO slams VOIP blocking


Jack Decker (jack-yahoogroups@witheld)
Tue, 08 Mar 2005 08:53:59 -0500

http://www.itworld.com/Net/3303/050308vonagevoip/

Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau

The top executive of VOIP (Voice over IP) provider Vonage Holdings
Corp. is satisfied with regulators' response to a carrier that blocked
Vonage's service but sees a broader danger ahead with technology for
detecting the data service that customers are using.

In an interview Monday at the Spring VON (Voice on the Net) trade show
in San Jose, California, Vonage Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeffrey
Citron also said traditional carriers can't afford to compete all-out
with Vonage and other VOIP upstarts despite having greater resources.

[.....]

"I think it's a technical issue that extrapolates itself into a First
Amendment issue," Citron said. Service providers that own
infrastructure and deliver content or services over it now have the
capability to look into the packets going to and from a customer's
connection and determine what kind of service they are using and even
the content of those packets, he said. It is technically possible for
network operators to read e-mail, block e-mail messages based on
content and limit access to Web sites, Citron said.

In addition to anti-competitive moves against VOIP companies and other
content and service providers, the problem raises censorship issues,
he said.

"What happens when the media property that owns distribution is owned
by a religious group?" Citron asked. Laws should be brought up to date
to prevent abuse, he said.

Full story at:
http://www.itworld.com/Net/3303/050308vonagevoip/

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/

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