One of the most exciting promises made by FairPoint Communications when it bought the landlines of Verizon Telephone in Northern New England was replacing traditional end-to-end telephone switching systems with IP-packet technology of the sort used in the Internet, thereby allowing various efficiencies and improvements and other cool stuff. FairPoint says it has finished the backbone work on this and hopes to start rolling out some services this year, although its financial problems may cloud that a bit.

Anyway, it seems that they are not alone in their hopes: The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on its attempt to create an “appropriate policy framework to facilitate and respond to the market-led transition in technology and services, from the circuit switched PSTN system to an IP-based communications world.” (PDF of request is here)

The request for public comment is an early step in the process, which like everything in Washington is likely to proceed very s-l-o-w-l-y.

Tags: voip