... On the FCC’s interim measure requiring VoIP providers to pay into the Universal Service Fund once DSL providers stop contributing in August ...
“These interim measures ... ensure that the fund remains solvent for the near term, and serve as an important first step toward broadening the fund’s contribution base to ensure equitable and nondiscriminatory support of the fund in an increasingly digital world.”
Robert M. McDowell, FCC Commissioner
“Vonage fully supports its obligations to government programs. Now that VoIP customers will be contributing directly to the fund, we hope, as a result of this interim rule, VoIP companies will now be able to utilize universal service funds enabling Vonage and the industry as a whole to bring new technologies like ours to rural America.”
Mike Snyder, Vonage Holdings Corp. CEO
“I don’t see with slam-dunk certainty that contributions from interconnected VoIP (which is, for all its impressive growth, still a relatively nascent industry) and from wireless carriers (whose possibly increased use of traffic studies could lead to unforeseen consequences) offset the funds lost by DSL’s nonparticipation.”
Michael J. Copps, FCC Commissioner
“This decision acknowledges the tremendous changes in how American consumers communicate while also honoring the nation’s commitment to universal service. We applaud [the] ruling for ensuring that all voice service providers are treated alike.”
Walter B. McCormick Jr., USTelecom President and CEO
“Eliminating wireline, wireless, cable, electric and satellite broadband transmission/broadband Internet access service revenues from the USF contribution base will likely undermine the president’s goal of providing affordable broadband services to all Americans by 2007, and conflict with proposed telecom rewrite legislation on Capitol Hill [that] ties the future of universal service to broadband deployment throughout the United States.”
Dan Mitchell, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association Vice President of Legal and Industry Affairs
