Suprema Corte Americana irá decidir sobre acesso de provedores à redes de telefonia

Supreme Court Will Rule on ISP Cable Access
By Wayne Rash | March 25, 2005

When Brand X, a California ISP, gets its day in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, there will be a lot more at stake than whether the company can get access to cable lines. In fact, depending on the details of the court decision, the case could determine the way in which the Federal Communications Commission regulates phone and information companies. At the core of the case is Brand X.

The ISP wants the FCC to require cable companies to sell access to their networks at wholesale in much the same way that EarthLink Inc. and other ISPs are sold access over DSL networks. The FCC has ruled that cable is an information service, and as such is not regulated by FCC rules. Because of this concept, the FCC has preempted rules that would tax phone service using cable lines, and state laws that require 911 access for people who use VOIP over cable.

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Em suma, a convergência entre redes de telefonia e redes de dados irá implicar na obrigatoriedade da FCC - o órgão americano que regula as cias. de telefonia (a ANATEL americana) - a decidir se regula tanto cias. de telefonia quanto cias. de provimento de acesso (provedores de internet e afins) e as implicações a que isto levará.

Caso não o faça, há chance de que acabe sendo da Suprema Corte a decisão final sobre as novas questões regulatórias que a convergência entre serviços de dados e telefonia impliquem. E como o FCC não quer perder sua função primordial, terá que tomar algum tipo de decisão.