Phone companies are fighting over the allocations of phone-numbers to VoIP companies like Vonage, arguing that “designer phone numbers” and growing services will exhaust all ten-digit numbers PDQ. The telcos claim that they just want to play nice, but it sure sounds like they’re trying to find an excuse to stop technology that lets us secede from the hated phone companies.
At the Jan. 22 NANC meeting, proponents of VoIP phone number regulation said they want agencies including the FCC to examine the Internet-phone industry’s use of “designer numbers,” among other things. Because of the nature of the Web, computer phone providers can offer customers a choice of different area codes, regardless of where they live.
“The idea is not to choke this thing off, but to explore the issues and reach some agreements so we can go forward,” said Randy Sanders, BellSouth’s director of regulatory and external affairs.
(via Hack the Planet)