You Can Put End to VOIP Port Blocking

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SAN JOSE, Calif.—Members of the Federal Communications Commission claim market forces, not regulation, will likely prevent a repeat of an ISP blocking voice-over-IP traffic.

In a "town hall" meeting Monday night at the VON Conference & Expo here, Jeffrey Carlisle, chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau, and Robert Pepper, chief of policy development at the FCC, answered audience questions on regulatory issues. A key topic was the recent blocking of VOIP traffic by Madison River Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Madison River Telephone Company LLC, and whether that scenario could repeat itself with other ISPs.