A correspondent sends this link to a Forbes piece on the FCC’s ruling on Voice-over-Internet Protocol phone service. VoIP had better provide 911 service or else they can just shut their scrappy little attempt to compete with the old-timey carriers.
Also: “The FCC isn’t the only governmental body putting pressure on VoIP companies. On Thursday, only hours before the FCC made its ruling, bills were introduced into both the Senate and the House of Representatives that would require Internet telephone vendors to connect to 911, and also permit state and local governments to tax those services in order to help pay for these 911 services.”
In short, the new stuff must be pretty much like the old stuff or else we will crush it. It’s incredible how regulators just seem to have this way of acting like the villians in a Rand novel. Another way to put it is that government is forever behaving just like the bad guys in The Incredible Bread Machine (1966)—which, I’m pleased to see, is on-line!
