It’s no secret Ma Bell isn’t happy with “upstarts” like Google Voice elbowing into their turf. The VoIP FUD machine, fueled by the telecom industry’s status quo, has been running on full blast for the last ten years, even to the extent that, until recently anyway, I was willing to concede that Ma Bell had won.
Now that AT&T has begun to ring the FCC about it’s dissatisfaction with certain players whose VoIP apps have gained momentum–chief among them Google Voice–the overwhelming debate between players in the Internet and telecom fields is now an out-front, obvious affair. This is due, I suppose, to Google’s use of very frank, conversational techniques–like blogging–in defending its policy positions and in describing its products or advances.
Ultimately, Google is arguing that AT&T would like the FCC to regulate that all VoIP apps that originate or terminate calls on the PSTN–Skype and Google Voice, both mentioned in Google’s rebuttle–be treated like phone lines, and idea that Google and I both agree is silly.
I vote for getting rid of the term “phone line” altogether. Where the app can’t be separated from the transport (as in a phone line), leave the existing regulations (and taxes) in place. But as that paradigm dies, so should the regulations intended to take advantage of its popularity.
