VOIP Justice!

Who do you call when your lame-o ISP blocks your VOIP service?

Call the FCC, baby!

The FCC doesn't just hassle Howard Stern. They don't just obsess over Janet Jackson's infamous Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction." Oh no ... sometimes they actually do something actually worth writing about. The commission stepped up to the plate today and whacked a misguided ISP -- Mebane, NC-based Madison River Communications -- for blocking the VOIP calls of its Internet subscribers.

Clueless about VOIP, Madison River describes themselves as: "a rapidly growing national communications CLEC provider offering innovative data, voice and colocation services to large and small corporations and value-added resellers across the United States." Innovative, eh? I think some of their VOIP savvy subscribers would use slightly different, yet unprintable, adjectives to describe their services.

Here's what the the good folks in Washington had to say today about ending Madison River's VOIP embargo:

The Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission reached a $15,000 consent decree today with Madison River Communication, LLC that will ensure uninterrupted Internet voice service on the company’s network.

“We saw a problem, and we acted swiftly to ensure that Internet voice service remains a viable option for consumers,” said FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell.

According to the terms of the consent decree, Madison River commits that it will refrain from blocking VOIP traffic and ensure that such blocking will not recur. The company will pay a contribution of $15,000 to the United States Treasury to settle this matter.

“The industry must adhere to certain consumer protection norms if the Internet is to remain an open platform for innovation” said Powell.

Powell has laid out his vision of “Internet Freedom”, a series of principles by which any company that intentionally breaks a consumer’s connection to the Internet violates the openness that consumers have come to expect.

“In my view, the surest way to preserve ‘Net Freedom’ is to handle these issues in an enforcement context where hypothetical worriers give way to concrete facts and—as we have shown today—real solutions,” said Powell.

Amen, Michael!

VOIP service is here to stay. It's not a fluke. It's not thievery. If an ISP subscriber pays good money for a broadband line, they expect to be able to use it.

Thinking about switching to VOIP service yourself? Check out the ever-handy geekbooks.com VOIP comparison chart. I've had a VOIP line here at ranchero indebto for the better part of a year and I love it ...