SPRING VON: Vonage CEO slams VOIP blocking

The top executive of VOIP (Voice over IP) provider Vonage Holdings Corp. is satisfied with regulators' response to a carrier that blocked Vonage's service but sees a broader danger ahead with technology for detecting the data service that customers are using.

In an interview Monday at the Spring VON (Voice on the Net) trade show in San Jose, California, Vonage Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeffrey Citron also said traditional carriers can't afford to compete all-out with Vonage and other VOIP upstarts despite having greater resources.

Late last year, Vonage determined that Madison River Communications LLC, a broadband provider based in North Carolina, was blocking the use of Vonage's service by some Madison River customers. Following an investigation by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Madison River last week agreed to pay the FCC US$15,000 and not to block VOIP services on its network.

Vonage, in Edison, New Jersey, has been an early leader in rolling out VOIP technology, which this week is bringing together about 240 exhibitors and 6,000 attendees at Spring VON. VOIP breaks up voice calls into data packets and sends them over IP networks, which usually allows for less expensive phone service and can enable advanced services such as unified messaging. Calls made on a VOIP service may travel over the broadband data network of a consumer's phone company or cable provider while bypassing that provider's own voice calling service.

Vonage was pleased with the FCC's action and how quickly it came, Citron said.

"How often do you see the FCC in the position to be able to act in a few weeks?" Citron said. It showed clearly that blocking VOIP service violates FCC rules, he said. Vonage never filed a complaint against Madison River because it didn't have to push the FCC to take action, Citron said. Vonage is investigating possible blocking by one or two smaller service providers and will bring its evidence to the FCC if its suspicions are confirmed, he added.

However, there are larger issues at stake in the matter, Citron contends.

"I think it's a technical issue that extrapolates itself into a First Amendment issue," Citron said. Service providers that own infrastructure and deliver content or services over it now have the capability to look into the packets going to and from a customer's connection and determine what kind of service they are using and even the content of those packets, he said. It is technically possible for network operators to read e-mail, block e-mail messages based on content and limit access to Web sites, Citron said.

In addition to anti-competitive moves against VOIP companies and other content and service providers, the problem raises censorship issues, he said.

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