European Commission (EC) updated its Internet telephony policy wi...
European Commission (EC) updated its Internet telephony policy with few changes, concluding this technology “in general continues to fall outside the definition of voice telephony.” EC supplement to 1998 communication cited cases in which Internet telephony could be treated…
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as voice telephony. Conditions that must be met include cases when service is offered commercially, provided to public, provided to and from public switched network termination points and involved direct speech transport and switching in real time and at same level of reliability and quality as public switched telecom network. Unless those caveats are met, EC said European Union members “should normally continue to allow Internet access/service providers to offer voice on Internet under data transmission general authorizations, and no mandatory requirement for an individual license is justified.” But if Internet telephony offerings meet 4 conditions, they should be regulated as substitutes for voice telephony under principle of technology neutrality, EC said. It sought comment last summer on status of voice communications on Internet. Several carriers urged Commission to make distinction between voice over Internet, which can be provided over public Internet facilities, and voice over IP, which is offered over dedicated IP networks and can guarantee quality of service (CD Sept 19 p1). EC policy update stipulated that voice over Internet covered “all kinds of conveyance of voice” using IP for routing and transmission. But voice over Internet is subset of voice over IP and “covers only such voice services that are provided over the public Internet, defined as a network of networks,” document said. While technology has improved since EC’s 1998 voice over IP directive, policy update makes clear that “public Internet” still is vulnerable to congestion that could affect voice signal quality. When service operators market bundled data and voice offering, EC would view this combination “as comprising 2 commercial offers,” policy said. In cases such as video telephony, when voice element can’t be separated from other components, “provision of voice services cannot be considered as the subject of a commercial offer,” EC said. It said supplement provided “general guidelines” and didn’t bar national authorities from making “specific assessments when justified by specific circumstances.”