Apparently the smaller traditional telcos in the US, those who haven’t adopted any sort of Voice over IP technology, are whining that they’re loosing money because the big bad VoIP providers are cheating.

The basis of their argument seems to be that they can’t tell where some incoming calls are coming from because the VoIP providers aren’t complying with traditional call identification standards. Thus they can’t decide who to bill or whether to bill them as local, long distance, etc.

Billing (except for the base fee for having the phone line) is one-sided in traditional telecom; the originating telco gets to collect the money for the call from the caller; while the destination telco doesn’t charge its customer for receiving the call. Carriers have deals with each other as to how much one would pay the other for connecting a call through their network, thus passing part of the income from the call down the line.

With VoIP, calls are not travelling from one telco to another; they likely travel over the internet for a large portion of the transit. Since the VoIP calls are coming over a IP switched network and getting dumped onto the PSTN at the point nearest the destination, the call may look like a local call to the destination telecom, and thus not incur any charges for the VoIP provider.

While I can understand the frustration of the small telecoms at losing revenue, they also need to realize that they have to adapt their technology to changing times. Complaining about lost revenue due to new technology is just not a valid argument. If the business is viable and proper investments are made, the end result should be a majority of satisfied customers and a reliable income base.

If your company can’t tell where incoming calls are coming from because your technology is too old or not updated, then maybe you should consider investing in equipment that not only allows you to identify calls, but allows better or increased service offerings to your customers. Negotiate deals with connecting telcos that makes it easier for everyone to establish a call, and cost savings are bound to appear. Offer new services to your subscriber base, or expand that base by offering other options such as high speed internet (remember, we’re talking mostly about rural telcos here).

Yes, the initial investment might be high. Every business faces this, and those that deal with it properly tend to succeed. Most don’t have the FCC to complain too about unfair rules or competitors, they must overcome it by innovating and working to make sure they have the best product.

So what’s the moral of this story? Grow up, learn how to run a business properly, offer products that consumers want, and embrace new technology. Don’t complain when you’re trying to keep a impractical business model going with government subsidies and inferior or inadequate equipment. Probably not likely, but I can hope can’t I?