STATEMENT
COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL
Re:  In the Matter of IP-Enabled Services, WC Docket No. 04-36 (May 13, 2009)
I am pleased to support today’s order.  Consumers increasingly are finding that 
interconnected VoIP services are a substitute for traditional telephone service.  In some 
instances, interconnected VoIP service providers exited markets or went out of business 
altogether and did not notify their customers beforehand.  Consumers only knew 
something was awry once they lost dial tone.  Today’s order allows consumers of 
interconnected VoIP service to receive the same courtesy of a notice of discontinuance of 
service as a consumer of any other type of phone service.  Such notice gives customers a 
reasonable opportunity to switch providers, and is consistent with our previous actions to 
ensure parity regarding obligations for E911, universal service, customer proprietary 
network information protections, disability access, and local number portability.  
Many thanks to Acting Chairman Copps for bringing this order forward and to the 
Bureau staff for their work on this matter.