FCC tries to help cable companies avoid state consumer protection rules [telecom]

FCC tries to help cable companies avoid state consumer protection rules

By Jon Brodkin

The FCC wants to block Minnesota from regulating Charter's VoIP phone service.

The Federal Communications Commission is intervening in a court case in order to help Charter Communications avoid utility-style consumer protections related to its phone service in Minnesota. The FCC and Charter both want to avoid a precedent that could lead other states to impose stricter consumer protection rules on VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone service offered by cable companies.

The FCC has never definitively settled the regulatory status of VoIP. By contrast, traditional landline phone service and mobile phone service are both classified as "telecommunications services" by the FCC, a distinction that places them under the same Title II common carrier regulatory framework that applies to broadband Internet access. But the FCC has never decided whether VoIP services offered by cable companies are telecommunications or "information services," which aren't as heavily regulated.

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Monty Solomon
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