The Denver Business Journal yesterday reported that the Colorado legislature is considering a bill that would regulate voice-over-Internet providers.  They would be required to put money into the rural phone service subsidy pot.

On the flip side, according to the article, the bill would also call for phasing out the rural subsidy over the next twenty years and reducing intrastate inter-carrier compensation rates.

Without rural subsidies, expanding broadband to underserved areas will be tricky.

The inter-carrier compensation issue has been dormant for too long. Nothing significant has been proffered since former FCC chairman Kevin Martin’s “glide path” concept for equating local and interstate access charges over two years ago. A little more certainty in the markets would result if the FCC moved ahead more vigorously.