VOIP Regulations May Soon Be Coming
As both Congress and the Supreme Court consider telecom regulations, Internet applications such as VOIP could be headed for government rules and taxes, industry experts warned today.
During a policy panel here at the Supernova conference Wednesday, representatives from the telecommunications and Internet industries said the issue of whether to regulate and tax VOIP and other applications running on IP networks is coming to a head.
The U.S. Congress this year is revisiting the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which had set out an intricate set of rules for attempting to deregulate telecom. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to rule in the next week on a case known as “Brand X” that could determine whether broadband Internet over cable should follow the line-sharing regulations that govern telecom carriers.
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