FSF Urges 8th Circuit to Reject State 'Power Grab' in VoIP Regulation

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ought to rebuff Minnesota's "power grab" of trying to regulate Charter Communications' Spectrum Voice VoIP service, Free State Foundation blogged Friday. Being an information service, as the lower court ruled, largely pre-empts Spectrum Voice from state regulation, FSF said, saying previous court decisions support treating VoIP as a Title I information service. It said transitions to next-generation technology have been boosted by "the overwhelming movement in the states toward non-regulation of VoIP." The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission didn't comment, but has argued there's no substantive difference between Charter's traditional and IP-based voice offerings (see 1708290028).