It looks obvious

Susan Crawford’s analyze brilliantly , as usual, the FCC activity enforcing archaic E-911 system on the new VoIP companies.  It is simply horrifying how the FCC stands in the way of new technologies to protect the interests of the old bells.

Even if the requirement to force the VoIP companies to work with the pre-historic e-911 system can be justified as public safety, how can someone justify forcing the VoIP companies to work through middleman? Since when increasing the overhead and therefore the price we, the consumer, have to pay serve our best interest?

Link: Remarkable leverage

"Let’s get this straight.  This means that the FCC is not only pushing for VoIP providers to be obligated to go through the legacy system-a solution that is bad enough in itself-but further ensuring that they must work with middlemen to do so. (If the Commission had wanted to open the legacy hardware to the VoIP people, the FCC could have done that.)  And, to boot, FCC is propping up the middleman-market as an "opportunity" for their familiar regulated entities, telephone companies.

I’m pretty cynical about the entire E911 debacle, but this is breathtaking."

Technorati Tags: E911, VoIP, Telecom Monopolies, Libertarianism, Free Market, FCC