CPUC Could Soon Move Ahead With VoIP Regulation

Interconnected VoIP providers are telephone corporations subject to the same laws and rules as other wireline and wireless telcos, the California Public Utilities Commission said in a proposed decision Friday. The CPUC may vote as soon as Oct. 17 on the item that aims to set a regulatory framework for VoIP providers (docket R.22-08-008). Consumer groups dismissed industry concerns that VoIP regulation is federally preempted (see 2307030036). "California’s Constitution specifically extends the Commission’s jurisdiction to companies engaged in ‘the transmission of telephone and telegraph messages,’” said the draft. “This includes services delivered over any technology, including but not limited to, traditional copper lines, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, and mobile or fixed wireless radios.” Under the proposal, the CPUC would create two utility type designations. Digital voice nomadic (DVN) providers, covering those with only nomadic interconnected VoIP services, would be subject to a registration process similar to the CPUC's existing wireless identification registration, it said. Digital voice fixed (DVF) providers that sell fixed interconnected VoIP would "continue to be subject to operating authority requirements similar to traditional wireline service providers,” the draft said. DVN and DVF providers would be required to post performance bonds, pay the CPUC user fee and file annual operating and affiliate transaction reports, it said. The state commission would require facilities-based interconnected VoIP providers to obtain certificates of public convenience and necessity to operate in California. Non-facilities-based fixed interconnected VoIP service providers would use the Public Utilities Code Section 1013 registration process to get operating authority. The CPUC proposed an automatic migration process for interconnected VoIP providers already registered under the previous informal process under Section 285. Also, the CPUC would remove some existing requirements for wireline telcos to align with the interconnected VoIP rules, the draft said. The agency said improvements to application processes for operating authority would include "standardized fees and performance bond amounts," an expedited 21-day California Environmental Quality Act review process and "presumptive confidential treatment of certain financial and business information."