Jogja Ponsel

Vonage Canada, one of the leading innovators in Internet phone service, says the federal telecom regulator should investigate what it’s calling a “VoIP tax” charged by Western cable TV giant Shaw Communications .

Vonage, which offers voice-over-Internet protocol services (VoIP) that depend on lines provided by phone and cable operators like Calgary-based Shaw, said Tuesday the company shouldn’t charge an extra fee to ensure the quality of the Internet service.

The Mississauga, Ont.-based subsidiary of Vonage Holdings Corp. of Holmdel, N.J., is one of the most prominent of the companies that have sprung up with Internet phone services in the last few years.

The issue of network neutrality has been a higher-profile issue in the United States where there have been congressional hearings.

Parent said in an interview that Vonage Canada also wants to raise the profile of the issue in this country, arguing that Shaw and the other Internet service providers should provide a uniform level of service to all of their customers.

Shaw, the biggest cable TV company in Western Canada and a growing telecom services operator, didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

There has been an industrywide push by equipment vendors to provide for phone and cable companies with the capability of prioritizing Internet traffic, particularly as usage of older technology such as electronic mail increases and newer resource-hungry applications such as Internet TV move into the mainstream.

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