Can you say VoIP? If not yet, you will soon. VoIP, aka Voice over Internet Protocol, the migration of voice telephony to the Internet, is one of the hottest current tickets in telecommunications today.

VoIP can take many different forms. These forms share a reliance on the packet-switching characteristics of the Internet, rather than the circuit-switching characteristics of the public-switched telephone network (or "PSTN"). The features and cost-savings associated with VoIP are such that telephone industry executives have predicted that VoIP will supplant the PSTN in 20 years. Of course, there are a number of major issues which must be resolved before VoIP can become ubiquitous.

Issues requiring resolution include the protection of universal telephone service; the delivery of 911 services (when a VoIP caller needing help could be anywhere in the country); the provision of wiretap access to law enforcement authorities; access for the disabled; and financial support for the preservation of the PSTN which serves as VoIP's host (i.e., the access charges which long distance carriers pay to local exchange companies for the costs of originating and terminating calls).

These and other issues are generating much controversy in telecom circles. They also are teed up for resolution by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") — the same governmental body currently grappling with Janet Jackson (and the revelation of her right breast to the Superbowl viewing audience for a nanosecond), media consolidation, and efforts to implement competition in local exchange telephone service.

In the case of VoIP, the FCC recently determined that a particular variant of Internet telephony provided by pulver.com is not a telecommunications service at all, but rather a form of information service. Thus classified, pulver.com's service is not subject to rate and entry/exit regulation as common carriage under Title II of the Communications Act. Among other things, this means that pulver.com is not subject to payment of access changes to local exchange carriers for originating and/or terminating calls.

This, obviously, has potential broad implications.

One of the most important FCC proceedings involves the FCC's omnibus IP-enabled services rulemaking. In this proceeding, initiated by a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted a few weeks ago but not yet released, the FCC will seek to resolve the VoIP policy issues referenced above, and numerous others.

As FCC Chairman Michael Powell recently stated in a CNBC interview, IP-based voice communication is "a life-style-changing, new, fantastic technology" and "the most vibrant innovation to come into the American economy, the global economy in decades — in centuries even."

So, while VoIP is relatively new, it is time to fasten our seatbelts, as we propel ourselves forward with this innovative medium.

(The author thanks his D.C. partner, Ken Keane, for his collaboration on this column.)

This article first appeared on Law.com.

Eric Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris (www.duanemorris.com), where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology disputes. His column appears Thursdays at USATODAY.com. His Web site is www.sinrodlaw.com, and he can be reached at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com. To receive a weekly e-mail link to Mr. Sinrod's columns, please send an e-mail with the word Subscribe in the Subject line to ejsinrod@duanemorris.com.