From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 06:34:18 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: FCC & Internet phones
Message-ID: <199603102200.OAA29839@ix16.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 09:56 AM 3/10/96 -0500, "Harry S. Hawk" <habs@warwick.com> wrote:
>> I wonder what exactly the FCC means by the term "Internet Phone."
>> Does this just mean that software like IPhone will be regulated, or
>> will this also apply
>The thing is that at "best" the Iphone people (et al), are sell
>Equipment!. NO ONE is SELLING phone service.. I mean Selling phone
>service means some guy in NYC putting a sign on a store front offering
>10 cents a minute calls "anyway where in the world."

Maybe nobody is selling phone service, and the internet provider is
selling packet-transfer service, but phone service _is_ being provided.
One possible response would be for the FCC to require internet providers to
block phone connections (highly unlikely; you could offer the service
on any port you wanted, and I think one of the versions runs over IRC);
another would be for them to block the sale of the software (tough
to block sale of Israeli software, much less free software.)

Bogus.
#--
#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215 pager 408-787-1281
# "At year's end, however, new government limits on Internet access threatened
# to halt the growth of Internet use.  [...] Government control of news media 
# generally continues to depend on self-censorship to regulate political and
# social content, but the authorities also consistently penalize those who
# exceed the permissable."  - US government statement on China...