There are better places to decide the classification...

There are better places to decide the classification of VoIP services than in a Union Electric petition for the telecom rate to apply to cable system pole attachments that provide VoIP services, most commenters said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1dSKaAg). “This is an inappropriate forum for determining the classification of VoIP services,” AT&T said. The question arose in the context of a contractual dispute between individual litigants, AT&T said. A private dispute between litigants is “not the appropriate forum in which to decide the classification of VoIP -- a classification which will have profound policy and market ramifications,” it said. NCTA encouraged the agency to reject the request, for “such a ruling would reverse important Commission policies promoting broadband deployment and competition through lower pole attachment rates as reflected in the 2011 Pole Order.” There is “no need” to classify VoIP in this proceeding; the commission is authorized to apply the cable rate to unclassified VoIP services, NCTA said. The American Cable Association also opposed the petition: “A general regulatory classification is not ripe for decision in this proceeding.” Mediacom also urged rejection. Union Electric’s “attempt to unilaterally reclassify” cable VoIP traffic as a telecom service “undermines the Commission’s 2011 determination that public policy demands that broadband infrastructure costs, including pole attachment rental fees, should be driven lower and as technology neutral as possible,” it said. Comptel supported the petition: “Given that the classification of interconnected managed VoIP services has been a point of dispute in a number of other proceedings in addition to this one, it would benefit the industry greatly for the Commission to confirm that managed VoIP services ... are ’telecommunications services.'”