VoIP being blocked

Submitted by acohill on Tue, 02/15/2005 - 18:52

Om Malik reports on news from law professor Larry Lessig that some VoIP services may be blocked or degraded on some of the incumbent networks. I predicted this many months ago--that the monopoly infrastructure carriers would eventually block VoIP because it competes with their own "antique" phone systems.

Congress and the FCC have generally been friendly toward to VoIP phone service, so expect this to become a huge political issue. The phone companies have the most to lose--namely their entire business, but the cable companies also want to sell telephone service. These dinosaurs will pour billions, if they have to, into the pockets of legislators to get laws that let them keep their monopoly control of their infrastructure, and by extension, monopoly control of the communities that they serve.

This is going to get very ugly. Communities can begin to innoculate themselves from this infection by making prudent investments in telecom. It's the only way to break the monopolies.