The VoIP jurisdictional saga continues. Last month, we discussed a decision by the Pennsylvania PUC asserting jurisdiction over intrastate Voice over IP calls and a decision by a US District Court reaching the opposite conclusion. Tomorrow, parties are asked to comment on a petition seeking, among other things, to preempt the Pennsylvania decision. We will be watching the comments and will post on anything of interest in the comments.
4/6/10 QUICK UPDATE: 19 entities filed comments in response to the Global NAPs petition. Most were ILECs or state commissions opposing the specific rulings proposed.
This latest VoIP proceeding has its origins in the Pennsylvania PUC decision. After the decision was issued, the carrier ordered to pay intrastate access charges, Global NAPs, filed a Petition for Declaratory Ruling with the FCC. The Petition seeks four rulings from the FCC:
1. The Vonage Order prohibits state commissions from subjecting VoIP traffic to intrastate tariffs;
2. Once a carrier’s service has been determined to be “primarily nomadic” VoIP, the remainder of its traffic also is interstate, absent “clear proof of purely intrastate calls”;
3. The Local Exchange Routing Guide (“LERG”) is not a reliable proxy for the geographic point of origination of VoIP calls; and
4. Connecting carriers that forward VoIP traffic are immune from interstate and intrastate switched access charges.
In the alternative, Global NAPs seeks preemption of the Pennsylvania PUC decision and “recent and/or impending” rulings in Maryland and New Hampshire.
The FCC released a Public Notice seeking comment on the Global NAPs Petition. Comments are due April 2; replies April 12.