911 is a legitimate public safety issue that regulators must grapple with in the VoIP age. No more than that, however. How 911 will be provided reliably, managed and paid for must be addressed. No other regulatory involvement with VoIP or other IP services at the state level should be implemented.
The cross subsidies and fees such as low income support paid by surcharges on the POTS bill that regulators oversee should, in time, also disappear. If states want to subsidize telephone service for low income people, it should be done from tax revenues, not by telecom surcharges. State laws must be changed for that to happen.
"Burl Haar, executive secretary of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, said Tuesday the commission is acting chiefly out of concern over whether Vonage and others Net phone providers can offer emergency 911 calling, which only a few elite operators are capable of providing. "There is a lot of uncertainty about how that will be resolved," Haar said."
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