VoIP – that’s Voice over the Internet Protocol - is the latest offering in the never-ending suite of products and services that constitute the communications revolution that’s now part of our daily life.

Reduced to its bare bones, VoIP allows you to talk to people over the internet using a normal telephone; not just via a PC equipped with a microphone and speakers. VoIP is already established in the corporate sector and the next market is residential and small business users.

The increasing take-up of broadband technologies has been a key driver, but VoIP is underpinned by two of the most important facets of competition – it is a low-cost service for end-users and there are few barriers to new entrants in the industry. So important is this new offering that the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) has already issued a discussion paper on regulatory issues associated with VoIP.

While many of the questions posed by the ACA relate to technical issues such as numbering arrangements, the discussion paper also highlights a number of important consumer protection aspects:

• Whether a VoIP service is a standard telephone service and hence attracts a range of regulatory and consumer-protection obligations such as the Customer Service Guarantee and access to the emergency call service.
  
• How to regulate providers who are located overseas.
  
• What will the (voice) quality of VoIP services be? All of these matters, of course, are important to consumers and hence to the TIO.

One of the most interesting issues, however, arises from the fact, as the ACA discussion paper makes clear, that VoIP can be offered in several ways as far as technology is concerned. In the first instance, this may mean that the provider or carrier that links an end-user to a network is simply unaware that the link is being used by another provider to supply a VoIP service.

This is somewhat unusual given that a VoIP service can, arguably, be regarded as the standard telephone service. From a consumer’s point of view this means that they may be dealing with two providers - one who provides the broadband network and another who provides VoIP.

They would receive separate bills from each, with no clear understanding as to who is responsible for complying with a variety of consumer protection measures. VoIP is just one example of the many challenges ahead for providers, consumers and the TIO in dealing with new and increasingly complex technologies. I look forward with interest to see how the industry tackles the issues that may arise from these technologies.

John Pinnock
Ombudsman