Level 3 Petition Decision Due Soon (II)

Greg Galitzine : Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog
Greg Galitzine

Level 3 Petition Decision Due Soon (II)

Hunter Newby is chief strategy officer at telx. Here are his thoughts on the pending FCC decision regarding Level 3.

The old way of telecom still generates a lot of cash flow. That cash is used to buy influence in the government, but it can’t stop evolution, it can only slow it down. I believe the US is currently ranked 13th in the world for broadband deployment/use. Broadband deployment is being financed by the savings realized from migration off of the PSTN to VoIP. The broadband access that rides in with VoIP also enables learning (public Internet, research, etc) and soon video applications that many parts of the rest of the world already surpass us with and continue to get ahead of us. If the FCC wishes to push the US further down the list to 23rd, or 33rd in the world in terms of education and economic development they will assess these access charges. If they do it will force VoIP networks to seek out peering at a much faster pace and it will bring about the demise of the traditional phone companies even sooner than if they left it all alone. The only thing keeping the new VoIP networks from peering with each other is awareness. The pieces all currently exist they just need to be assembled. 

This is mainly for carrier and enterprise VoIP. They can buy Ethernet transport. Consumer VoBB’s and MSO’s are already peering and that will increase dramatically, but those who live in an area not serviced by a broadband voice provider will have to move. Their rates for phone service will skyrocket and many VoBB’s and MSO’s may have to raise their flat rates a little to cover the higher terminating costs, or accept a lower profit margin for a while.

So, in summary, if the FCC imposes the fees evolution will happen anyway and they’ll end up looking like the bad guys.



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