At 10:12 PM 3/16/2005 -0600, R Collinge wrote [in the VoIP News list]:
> Hi Jack,
> Are you reading Rep Upton's comments correctly? I had interpreted
> his quote as something like, "It is scary that we were so close to
> disaster, which could easily have happened if not for a few brave
> commissioners and judges." I read his thought as being that we need
> federal regulation to keep the hungry states permanently at bay.
> Also, I certainly agree with your point about international
> competition holding the power of regulators in check. FWIW, I
> commented to the FCC on the Vonage petition back in November '03,
> and think I mentioned it then, too.
> Bob
Bob and everyone,
Oh, boy, when I blow it I really blow it. I had of course interpreted
it as, "these seven individuals stopped the states from doing what
they ought to be able to do", but when Bob sent the above comment, I
did a Google search to see if Rep. Upton had made any other remarks on
VoIP, and came up with this:
http://www.vonage-forum.com/printout1009.html
"We will never know VoIP's tremendous potential if we saddle it with
unwarranted government regulation," Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in
his opening remarks at one of the first hearings to address VoIP
regulation. Upton, who chairs the House telecommunications
subcommittee, warned that "VoIP providers should not be regulated like
common carriers."
So, I apologize to Rep. Upton and to the readers of the MI-Telecom and
VoIP News groups -- apparently he gets it. Actually, I guess I should
have realized that SBC, Verizon, and Comcast would not necessarily
favor regulation of VoIP because they all are getting into it. It's
the smaller rural companies (the second- and third-tier companies)
that really feel threatened by VoIP. What I think misled me was the
fact that the article started out as kind of an anti-VoIP hit piece
(in effect saying that someone could have died because they tried to
use a VoIP line to call 911) and when Rep. Upton's remarks were
included in that type of article, I took them in a negative light.
In fact, I almost have to wonder if the writer of that article
deliberately took that quote out of context in such a way that some
people (like me) might think that Rep. Upton was anti-VoIP. Still, I
feel like an idiot right now -- what was obvious to Bob and probably to
many of you totally went right past me. Mea culpa and all that!
Jack Decker (jack-yahoogroups@withheld)