Asterisk anyone?

[A. Khattri]

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005, Matthew Carpenter wrote:

> Quite likely.  In the US it will largely depend on the nasty regulatory
> strength of the incumbent lobbies.  Hopefully we have already seen their
> power waning with the advent of several large-scan VoIP providers.

Far from it - the recent FCC rulings regarding competitive access for
cable and phone companies have effectively removed the requirement to
provide access to networks for competitors (it is now "optional" rather
than "mandatory" and the local encumbants can change terms or cancel at
the end of any contract).

This will squeeze out the small ISPs (like us) and remove competition
effectively so the phone/cable companies can move in to offer VOIP (which
is already happening, certainly here in the north east it is).

This is the worst FCC we've ever had.


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