Regulate Internet telephone? No!!!
A reader emails with a well-thought reaction to my column yesterday on the disparity between regulation of traditional phone service and voice-over-Internet phone service. There are certainly downsides to regulation and upsides to non-regulation, and he makes some good points:
I really think you were off the mark in your article on regulation VoIP. I've been a Vonage customer for over a year now and I know of about 5 other Vonage customers (I work in IT, so I'm sure it is disproportionately high). The whole point of VoIP is that is free of the constraints (some of them regulation) that keeps POTS so expensive and feature-poor.
The key difference to me between POTS and VoIP is that there is substantial competition in the VoIP market. If I'm unhappy with my POTS service, I really have no one to change my service to and I have to rely on the government for help. Sure there are so-called alternatives, but really Verizon owns the last mile regardless. On the other hand if I get wronged by Vonage there are probably a dozen competitors I could shift my business to. Additionally, since my bill is paid by credit card I have the option of disputing the charge.
Is VoIP as reliable as POTS? No, but I don't think many people go into it believing that it is (although I have to say my sound quality is noticeably better with VoIP than my old copper line). And it certainly isn't like the service is down all the time. I have never not been able to make a phone call and am only aware of two instances in a year where somebody tried calling me and couldn't get through (and it both cases the call was forwarded to my cell phone).
And that brings up another disagreement with your comments. I think in Maryland the vast majority of people have cell phones. Heck, my 71 year old mother does (and she is thrilled with her Vonage service...she got it before me). If not, keep your POTS and strip it down to the bare minimum of service. Of course it will still cost you an arm and a leg because of all the government fees on it. Thanks to regulation...
Comments
Like most of the rest of the Internet, VOIP is scary in that anarchistic way. One day one of them just stops operation without any notification. Poof. There goes your phone service. There are still some difficult-to-work-around landline needs: alarm systems, faxing, etc. Sure, some alternatives exist, but compatibility and reliability are major issues for business and security purposes.
I wonder if their diminishing (vanishing?) landline customer base is not a major reason for declining levels of Verizon's customer service. Funny how a neighbor of mine was complaining bitterly about getting service for his phone line several weeks before the PSC hearings took place. He is annoyed enough to be very hesitant to switch to their new FiOS service, now available in our neighborhood.
Service for FiOS, by the way, is great. I called for an installation appointment *after* he had called for repair service and had my FiOS installed before his repair appointment. That made me happy, but I'm not sure Verizon gets it, that ticking off your existing customers is not a good way to convince them to spend another $100+ on your services.
Posted by: LJ Kirk | September 10, 2007 1:30 PM