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FCC Fines N.Car. Provider $15K For Blocking Vonage

(UPDATED, 5:18 p.m. PST, 3/3/05)

So who's the guilty party that was blocking Vonage's Voice over IP service? A North Carolina-based service provider, which on Thursday agreed to pay a $15,000 fine for its actions and pledged not to block VoIP traffic in the future.

The Federal Communications Commission announced Thursday that it had reached a $15,000 consent decree with Madison River Communications, a Mebane, North Carolina service provider that calls itself the "17th largest phone company in the US," with "234,204 connections in service."

According to the FCC, Madison River pledged to "refrain from blocking VOIP traffic and ensure that such blocking will not recur." FCC chairman Michael Powell, who has made his vision for "Internet Freedoms" a very public crusade, said the decree supports his views that the Internet should remain open to all types of traffic.

"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 in a statement released by the FCC. "The industry must adhere to certain consumer protection norms if the Internet is to remain an open platform for innovation," he added.

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