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Jeffery Citron, CEO of Voice over IP provider Vonage, talks fast because he has to -- there's ony 24 hours in a day, and still a lot of work to be done educating people about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications, and why VoIP shouldn't be constrained by the telecom regulatory procedures of the past.
Networking Pipeline caught up with Citron after he participated in a panel discussion Wednesday at the Network Outlook conference in Redwood Shores, Calif., and slowed him down long enough to get his thoughts on several matters including VoIP, the FCC, and intercarrier compensation.
Networking Pipeline: If you were chairman of the FCC, what is the first thing you would do?
Jeffrey Citron: Quit. (laughs.) Seriously, in the VoIP arena, the first thing I would do is declare that all forms of Voice over IP communications are interstate in nature. That would bring so much clarity to the market. It made a lot of sense for the cellular market, and I think if there was such a declaration there'd be a lot of support behind it. Right now, the genie is out of the bottle regarding VoIP. The only thing that could derail the momentum is if the states start getting aggressive about regulation.
Networking Pipeline: You've talked about the need to rethink intercarrier compensation and universal service. Can you expound a bit?
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