The FCC released its 29-page Declaratory Ruling in which it finds that Pulver.com’s Free World Dial-up (FWD) is neither “telecommunications” nor a “telecommunications service.” The ruling declares FWD to be an unregulated information service and subject to federal jurisdiction. FCC Commissioners voted 4-to-1 to approve pulver.com’s petition on 12-February-2002. The newly released order spells out in detail how the decision was made.
The FCC noted that its classification of FWD as an unregulated information service was based on the fact that FWD acts as a type of directory service, informing its member when fellow members are online or present. “Thus, even if FWD were providing transmission (which it is not), the information that FWD provides is not information of the user’s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received. Instead, FWD provides new information: whether other FWD members are present, at what IP address a member may be reached; or, in some cases, a voice mail or email response. Finally, the fact that Pulver’s server is connected to the Internet by some form of transmission is not in and of itself, as some commentators argue, relevant to the definition of telecommunications.
The FCC also noted that FWD does not charge for its service and that to be a telecommunications service, the service provider must assess a fee for its service.
Finally, the FCC rejected pulver.com’s argument that it also is not an “information service,” ruling that FWD is in fact an “unregulated information service” that is interstate in nature and therefore subject to federal jurisdiction. http://www.fcc.gov
- The only FCC Commissioner to vote against granting Pulver’s petition on 12-Feb-2004 wasMichael J. Copps, who said the ruling “presents stark challenges for law enforcement and has implications for universal service, public safety and state and federal relationships that we have yet to untangle or assess.”
