Current U.S. regulatory policy is incoherent in its treatment of packet-oriented data
communications services. Services based on X.25, Frame Relay or ATM protocols are
regulated as telecommunications services, while IP packet transport is lumped together
with applications such as email and the World Wide Web -- and treated as an unregulated
information service. Uncertainty also reigns over the appropriate treatment of IP
telephony. As IP transport becomes an ever more significant fraction of all
telecommunications, public policy problems posed by this inconsistent treatment are likely
to increase
