States fear tax effects of voice-over-Net services

He said services already not only allow use of personal computers as phones but may also include:

• A virtual fax number to handle all incoming faxes;

• A visual mailbox to manage voice mail and faxes like e-mail;

• Voice conferencing tools to easily allow many people to talk at the same time anywhere in the world;

• And programming allowing calls to find a recipient no matter what phone he is using.

"Facilities-based VoIP services truly hold the potential to revolutionize the telecommunications industry, all within a few short years," he said.

Robert Pepper, chief of policy development for the Federal Communications Com- mission, said the questions of how and whether to regulate are difficult because the new technology is so different from the old telephone services. He said it is merely an additional application added to a computer and Internet service.

"Saying that a VoIP application is merely another way of making a phone call is like saying that the automobile is just another way of going someplace in your horse and buggy. VoIP means that voice may no longer be a dedicated service for which consumers pay a separate bill," he said.

Meanwhile, the Senate too is mulling VoIP.

The Senate Committee on Commerce last week rewrote a bill that its sponsor, Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., originally intended to help shield VoIP providers from state and local regulators and taxing authorities. Instead, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., had the panel amend the measure so governments could tax them to pay for universal service and to levy access charges to compensate telephone companies for the use of their phone lines.

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com