We live in a world where leaps in technology happen on a regular basis. One of the latest jumps is technology that lets telephone users make calls over the internet. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) allows a person to talk to anyone in the world for a fraction of the cost of a traditional long distance call.
Adoption of VoIP services has exploded over the last several years. According to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, at the end of 2005 there were fewer than 6 million VoIP customers. By the end of 2008, that number had tripled, to 17.7 million customers.
Washington legislators have introduced Senate Bill 5628 and House Bill 1585 to restrict the ability of state agencies, or agency subdivisions, to regulate VoIP. This limits regulators from dictating rates, terms and conditions of service, or the entry into the market by a digital voice provider.
The fast pace at which technology improves makes regulating such market changes impractical. The fact that VoIP took off as a nationwide communications tool led state regulators to hold off regulating certain aspects of it. This was a wise idea, primarily because over the last several years the FCC established a national framework of regulations around VoIP. More restrictive state regulations would only have made entry into the market for service providers more expensive and complicated. In the end, this would have hurt consumers in our state.
The idea that state regulators should refrain from regulating this important medium of communication was recommended early on in a Policy Note by Washington Policy Center back in 2004.
Read the full Legislative Memo here