Regulatory Treatment of IP Transport and Services

Abstract

Current U.S. regulatory policy is incoherent in its treatment of packet-oriented data communications services. Services based on X.25, Frame Relay or ATM protocols are regulated as telecommunications services, while IP packet transport is lumped together with applications such as email and the World Wide Web -- and treated as an unregulated information service. Uncertainty also reigns over the appropriate treatment of IP telephony. As IP transport becomes an ever more significant fraction of all telecommunications, public policy problems posed by this inconsistent treatment are likely to increase.