US Supreme Court declines to hear VoIP case

The US Supreme Court declined to hear the case Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission v Charter Advanced Services. The case argued whether states are entitled to regulate Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Charter Advanced Services provides VoIP services by allowing users to place voice calls over an Internet connection. The company declared itself as an information service subject only to federal regulation, while the Commission in Minnesota disagreed with it and tried to enforce its state laws. The Eight Circuit Federal Appeals Court, in a ruling issued in 2018, decided the Charter’s interconnected VoIP offering was an information service. By refusing to hear the case, the Supreme Court essentially sided with Charter and denied states the ability to individually regulate VoIP services.