[April 22, 2004]

"Some 18 months ago, AT&T asked the FCC to confirm that IP telephony remains free of bloated local company access charges. During those many months, the industry and the public were given repeated public assurances that this Commission would protect new investment in technologies, and would especially resist applying legacy regulatory regimes to Internet telephony.

Despite such explicit statements, the FCC today did a stunning about face and chose instead to protect the monopoly revenues of the Bell companies at the expense of consumers everywhere. This sends an ominous signal as the FCC prepares to tackle even more critical questions that will either spur Internet telephony, or stifle it in order to favor four monopoly phone companies."

—Jim Cicconi, AT&T general counsel, in a statement