Currently, the FCC considers this to be an information service. The service your phone company provides is a telecommunication service. Telecommunication services are taxed and regulated by the state and federal governments. So far, VoIP is not, but that’s about to change as this technology gets ready to go mainstream.

As soon as the Federal government decides how to tap your line.

And just what mainstream uses does this new technology have?

With the right hardware and software, you can take your phone with you and people can reach you at that number no matter where you are. Unlike a cell phone, you are not bound by area codes or roaming charges. Your number is unique to that actual device, where ever that device is. And the cost of using that device is constant anywhere you have a high speed connection.

You can ‘register’ that phone in any area code so your primary customer base can call it as a local call. You can have the Los Angeles office speaking to the Tokyo office for hours a day with the same costs as if it were a local call. If both offices were using VoIP, the only costs would be that of the internet connection.

And what is holding this up?

Telecommunications companies have to pay taxes and contribute to state and local mandates such as E911 and the Universal Service Fund. They also have to be CALEA compliant. CALEA (The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994) made it mandatory that all carriers had to assist law enforcement in electronic surveillance if presented with a court order.

This new VoIP technology presents carriers with a problem. The beauty of VoIP is that little or no phone company wires are used to complete a call, that is how they keep costs low (phone companies have the right to charge another carrier for using their lines to connect a call). To comply to the CALEA Act, VoIP companies would be forced to route a portion of your call through older “legacy” phone lines so they can be tapped if required. If VoIP didn’t route your calls through “legacy” equipment, the Feds would be forced to try to tap the entire Internet to find your call, a technical impossibility at the moment. And once common phone lines get involved, there go the cost savings.

The organization caught in the middle is the FCC. State public utility commissions, courts, the Department of Justice, FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency and others are all pushing the FCC to make a ruling as to whether VoIP is an “information” or “telecommunication” service. In other words, the Feds are asking that the technology be considered “telecommunications” so they can force fledgling VoIP companies to route their calls through “tappable” wires.

The FCC is also aware that an election is coming up. By making a decision, the FCC could essentially create a block of unhappy internet users voting against the current administration.

The only thing certain is that no decision will be forthcoming until 2005.

The downside of changing out drives is needing to reinstall programs. On the other hand, you start to realize that you didn’t really need all the old ones.

One I like, though, is AdSubtract Pro. I’ve been running 2.55 and decided this would be a good time to upgrade to 3.0. After all, so far, it’s been an absolutely terrific program.

Thank goodness I decided to find out what other users were saying before I purchased the “upgrade”, which is really apparently a major downgrade.

Guess I’ll stick with the old one, if I can find the install…. Otherwise, does anyone else have a better recommendation?