Relatively new services are arising in the telecommunications environment.  One such case is IP Telephony, which has drawn the attention of regulators, the industry and consumers particularly because of its characteristics, which have increased the service alternatives that can be provided through the Internet Protocol compared to switched-circuit telephone networks. Follow we will provide key issues on VoIP.

Interconnection

Interconnection is the most important concept in the competitive telecommunications environment, as much in transition markets as in those that are entirely competitive, because it ensures that all users benefit from the positive externalities derived from a large number of interconnected users. All PSTN concessionaries are subjected to interconnection obligations. The IP transport policy, which includes voice transport, is essentially the same, except for the fact that net externalities derive from the interconnection of both users and of resources.

Likewise, one of the key aspects of the telecommunications market opened to competitiveness refers to conditions for interconnection among all local providers of the services. Other important aspects of the issue are access to individual elements of the “local loop”, integration of Internet and IP services with the switched-circuit nets of established operators and new operators. These, will make the local environment very complex.

It is probable that the local loop opening will result in an increased number of agents capable of offering the clients broadband data services encompassing voice services through the individual local loop of the established operator. This gives new concurrent operators the possibility of offering IP telephony together with DSL broadband data services

Additionally, a technological change from switched-circuit nets to IP nets can affect the cost of provisioning, routing and can modify the basis on which the interconnection functions, such as call origination and completion. IP technology has reduced costs and this has created economic pressures that reflect on final prices as in the case of interconnection charges, particularly when tariffs are less independent of, or independent of (sic) the number of minutes the call lasts

This is why differences between interconnection in a switched-circuit net and a switched-packet net are as follows:

Table 7 Interconnection Aspects

For VoIP, interconnection cases such as the following are presented:

a) Between two VoIP providers

This scenario, in turn, has two variants, each one with very different implications:

• National interconnection: Two operators that offer telephony under their License Regulations and which, either in part of or in all of their networks, use VoIP technology, become interconnected by means of an IP interface. This scenario should come under the Interconnection Regulations of their country providing for the interconnection of public networks. Nevertheless, the need to define an Interconnection Point (IP) could require the drafting of legal regulations in addition to those that already exist.

• International interconnection: Two operators that offer long-distance international telephony and which, either in part of or in all of their networks, use VoIP technology, use an IP connection to exchange traffic (international traffic bypass). This model clearly assumes the substitution of current accounting charging schemes for new bilateral and multilateral agreements (model referred to as “clearinghouse”) between “IP operators.”

b) Between the VoIP provider and a fixed or mobile operator

c) Between the VoIP provider and national or international traffic providers

Universal Service

Universal service is referred to in all the countries as telephony services, while IP Telephony or VoIP is seen as a partial application of the Internet Protocol, which, if it were limited to only telephony, would not be able to provide the whole series of advantages that IP technology is capable of providing, nor would it help reduce the cost of the final products that can be achieved with it. As a result, we yet again face the issue of technological neutrality. In other words, this suggests that, if a new technology serves as a substitute for, or competes with, the telephony services, it should be governed by the same obligations as the traditional way of providing this service.

The dilemma within this principle lies in whether beyond extending the obligations to other carriers, it becomes necessary to guarantee greater flexibility for any service carriers, be they traditional or newcomers.

Regarding this topic, suffice it to recall here a traditional paradox on the funds for US that various countries have in force. What is happening in these countries is that those with a higher need are those that have low penetration indices; in other words, the small part of the population (the relatively few people who have telephony) must meet the needs of the majority of the population (those who do not have telephony) by contributing to the fund. If we apply this situation to the case of VoIP, what happens is that those who currently use it are not contributing to this fund for US, and this leads to the decline in its capitalization to reinvest in network development. Therefore, use of a particular technology produces (on the same service) a decline in the funds established for given purposes.

Security and Confidentiality

Due to their open nature, ITU says that IP networks pose particular security challenges. The PSTN (and also a mobile network) is a closed network with controlled security and privacy. IP based VoIP is open architecture where vulnerabilities, threats and risks for communications security exist in various network elements.

Data security and reliability are of significant importance for IP services in general, but have even more important consequences for E-business applications. Security relates to privacy issues, illegal access to archives and information piracy violating intellectual property rights. Additional tax and commercial law-related issues appear in the case of e-business. Reliability is a more technical element and its expression is the degree of certainty that information received corresponds exactly to the information transmitted. The importance of correctly identifying the parties´ intervening in a remote commercial transaction is well known. These aspects are beyond the competence and mandate of the telecommunications regulatory bodies, as they could correspond to other governmental and control authorities or fail to be included within a governmental or regulatory area; however, the collaboration among regulatory and control bodies may benefit problem resolution.

Currently telecommunication networks processing telephone call traffic must include security techniques, such as legal call interception (CALEA- Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act).

These security techniques in most cases are compulsory legal requirements established by telephone service managing bodies to assist legal authorities.

Thus the system of legal call interception should allow detail generation, replication or interception of conversations originated or completed by a particular customer. Additionally, the customer should not detect the replication or interception of his/her calls.

From a technical standpoint, PSTN has always provided the possibility of identifying the terminal from which any given call originated. The location from which a malicious call is being made is likewise traceable almost in real time. This is frequently used by judicial authorities in cases of harassment, threats and other types of misuse of telephone services.

This level of security is not available today in VoIP communications. Although solutions to these issues have been proposed at standardization for a, their effectiveness has not been proven, nor their use disseminated.

Servers, gateways, softswitches, IP phones, etc. may be the object of attacks putting them out of service. These attacks are known as Denial of Service or “DoS¨, the most common being:

• Consumption of scarce or limited resources
• Destruction or alteration of configuration information
• Physical destruction or alteration of network components

In addition to this type of attacks, equipment may be infected by viruses that deteriorate their performance.

Equipment may be protected against malicious attacks by implementing intruder detection systems and firewalls.

Because of the integration of voice and data in a single network, establishing a secure VOIP and data network is a complex process that requires greater effort than that required for data-only network, US Department of Commerce -through National Institute of Standard &Technology (NIST)- issued the following recommendations on January 2005 as a guideline.

In particular, start with these general guidelines, recognizing that practical considerations, such as cost or legal requirements, may require adjustments for the organization:

1. Develop appropriate network architecture.

2. Ensure that the organization has examined and can acceptably manage and mitigate the risks to their information, system operations, and continuity of essential operations when deploying VOIP systems.

3. Special consideration should be given to emergency services communications (E-911), because this automatic location service is not available with VOIP in some cases.

4. Agencies should be aware that physical controls are especially important in a VOIP environment and deploy them accordingly.

5. Evaluate costs for additional power backup systems that may be required to ensure continued operation during power outages.

6. VOIP-ready firewalls and other appropriate protection mechanisms should be employed. Agencies must enable, use, and routinely test the security features that are included in VOIP systems.

7. If practical, “softphone” systems, which implement VOIP using an ordinary PC with a headset and special software, should not be used where security or privacy are a concern.

8. If mobile units are to be integrated with the VOIP system, use products implementing WiFi Protected Access (WPA), rather than 802.11 Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP).

9. Carefully review statutory requirements regarding privacy and record retention with competent legal advisors.

Additional information about integrity network and security, can be obtained from ITU GSR document (see # 6.3.1)

Numbering and Nomadism

There are many alternative forms in which VoIP services can be addressed, such as through IP addresses, SIP addresses, H.323 addresses or E.164 numbers. It is important to acknowledge that using traditional E.164 numbers is just one option and it might gradually loose its dominant role in the future. However, since E.164 numbers are still needed to originate and receive calls from traditional voice services, they play an important role in addressing VoIP services and are therefore discussed here.

E.164 numbering ranges are usually divided into several generic types indicating the services that may be offered using these numbers. The ECC VoIP report includes the following existing number ranges to be relevant for VoIP services: geographic numbers, mobile numbers, personal numbers and corporate numbers.

At the moment the position regarding the availability of geographic numbers for VoIP services varies in different Member States. The main argument in favour of allocating geographic numbers to VoIP services is that they offer the best support for competition, especially combined with number portability. The main arguments against it have been the nomadic use of VoIP and exhaustion of geographic numbering resources. The ECC VoIP report identifies three ways for allocating geographic numbers in order to support VoIP services:

• allowing nomadicity in a limited area,
• allowing nomadicity countrywide but requiring relation with geographical area of the number, or,
• removing requirements for relationship to geographical location.

Also mobile, personal and corporate numbers can be used to address VoIP subscribers. These are, however, seen as less attractive in many Member States because of the perceived high retail tariff for calling.

NRAs may also open new number ranges for nomadic VoIP services, whether or not existing number ranges are changed. The ECC VoIP report identifies three types of possible new number ranges: a general-purpose number range, a number range for nomadic services and a number range for ENUM-based services. The new number ranges could be motivated mainly by the high tariffs associated by end users to existing non-geographic numbers, the aim to keep the existing number ranges intact and by giving freedom to service providers to create their own service description. However, there is no guarantee that the tariff for a new number range will settle at a certain (low) level.

Currently, a number of countries have made tests with ENUM. Information about these tests can be found in ITU-T website (www.itu.int)

This summary shows some of the regulatory aspects of telephony in three environments: VoIP, public telephony, universal service