The first attempt to challenge the new breed of Internet telephony solutions has been made by the America’s Carriers Telecommunication Association (ACTA). The group, a trade association representing over 130 of the smaller US long-distance carriers, has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to stop the sale of Internet telephony solutions, claiming that they are essentially unregulated services, and should be required to file tariffs both with the FCC and state public service commissions, as required by the Communications Act of 1934, and the recent Telecommunications Act. ACTA recognizes that it is facing a long and uphill battle – not least because Internet telephony solutions are not services per se, and therefore cannot be regulated as such. Similarly, by the very nature of the Internet, it would be possible to download telephony software from outside the US, even if the FCC were successful in preventing its sale within the States. Charles Helein, general counsel for ACTA, nevertheless believes that the move is an essential one. In terms of the impossibility of categorizing Internet telephony as a service, he likens the situation to the 1960s, when cable television emerged as a new medium which did not correspond to existing regulations for broadcast media – and he points out that the FCC was eventually able to introduce a suitable regulatory framework. On the question of being able to get the software from outside the US, he says that he hopes that other countries will follow suit, if the FCC can be persuaded to take the lead. Indeed, he says that ACTA has already received a telephone call supporting its actions from one of the big three telecoms carriers, which implies that ACTA may find itself with some heavyweight support in making its petition to the FCC.
