Is VoIP a data service or telephonic service? The debate over it is in the pipeline following the federal appeals court’s ruling that makes it mandatory for the VoIP players to contribute towards Universal Service Fund (USF), which was inducted by the Federal Communications Commission in 1997 as per the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
In a straight order to Vonage, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that VoIP services which are interconnected with the PSTN must contribute to the USF.
Last year, Vonage has strongly objected FCC’s USF ruling stating that the regulatory authority is overplaying its role on VoIP USF. The company asserted that the imposition of USF fees creates unnecessary pressure upon the VoIP players.
As of now, the traditional telecoms are paying 11.7 percent of their long distance revenue towards USF. In case of VoIP, it is quite difficult to distinguish between local and long distance calls since the calls are made over Internet. Then, FCC has drawn a controversial line by marking 64.9 percent of VoIP providers for the USF fees.
Let’s suppose, the USF laws are applied for VoIP players (by legislation), there is every possibility that the end-users are the ultimate losers. How? The VoIP players will charge high price to compensate the amount which they will pay for the fund.
