FCC to Develop Internet Phone Call Rules
Feb 12, 4:08 PM (ET)
By JONATHAN D. SALANT
WASHINGTON (AP) - Regulators agreed Thursday to set rules for telephone calls made online, and for technology to allow computer users to reach the Internet through a household electric outlet.
The Federal Communications Commission said it would
develop rules that would allow the power lines that bring electricity to homes and businesses to also deliver high-speed Internet connections. Once a utility or a company it contracts with installs the necessary equipment, a computer user would only have to plug the machine into a special modem that plugs into a conventional electric outlet, according to Jay Birnbaum, vice president of Current Technologies, a company now testing such connections in the Washington suburbs.
Even as it develops rules governing Internet phone calls, the commission decided that one such service, Free World Dialup, was not subject to the same regulations as regular phones. Internet users can join Free World Dialup at no cost and make calls to each other without using the conventional phones. They use special numbers to route the calls rather than 10-digit phone numbers.
