With Vonage v. Minn. PUC oral arguments expected in Oct., Vonage ...
With Vonage v. Minn. PUC oral arguments expected in Oct., Vonage urged the FCC during an ex parte meeting last week to act “expeditiously” on its pending petition concerning the jurisdictional nature of its service. “If the FCC chooses…
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to act later, the [U.S. Appeals Court, St. Louis,] will render the decision prior to the FCC, and the Commission will be bound by the court decision,” Vonage attorney William Wilhelm told us: “If the FCC wants to set a precedent, it would have to act on the matter before the court ruling.” The 8th Circuit is expected to issue its decision this year. With respect to VoIP 911 services, Vonage said it continued to “devote substantial resources toward the development of standards and technology necessary to facilitate VoIP 911 services.” It said it was “a signatory to the NENA Statement of Principle with respect to the development of VoIP.” But it said it “concurs with NENA’s opposition to the fragmentation of 911 and agrees that consumer expectations for 911 are national and therefore require jurisdictional leadership and resources from the Federal Government.” Noting that the FCC promised to provide that leadership in its IP services rulemaking, Vonage said it would support Commission action that would endorse “a national approach to IP 911 that would marshal the regional expertise of the public safety community but preclude disparate state approach.” It urged the Commission to approach the development of VoIP 911 “just as it oversaw the national deployment of 911 for commercial mobile radio services.”