The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission still sees
The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission still sees the fixed VoIP of Comcast as a utility service, said the PUC in an order Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/11DR5r3), reaffirming its 2011 decision. “Our fundamental state-law determinations remain unaffected by [Senate Bill] 48,” the…
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PUC said, referring to a June 2012 law that revamped the state’s telecom laws. “We continue to find that Comcast’s fixed-IP enabled cable voice services constitute the conveyance of telephone messages, and that Comcast is therefore a public utility” under certain aspects of state law, the agency said. State “regulation of these voice services is neither explicitly nor implicitly preempted by federal law,” it said. The PUC changed its determination that Comcast was a CLEC and instead judged it an ELEC, standing for excepted local exchange carrier. It declined to discuss the obligations of such ELECs and pointed to proceedings under way, with stakeholders weighing in.