Fixed and mobile telephony with other telecommunication services are moving to a fundamentally different infrastructure as the transition proceeds from the public telephone network to the Internet. There are many opportunities to make significant progress on major developments such as separation of operator independent functions, modular design, and the integration of other desirable features of sustainable Internet solutions. This progress also means that the impacts of some shortcomings of currently competitive telephony services will decline—another benefit of the transition.
However, because telephony services are essentially being “emulated” over the Internet infrastructure, other aspects of these services will be changed in ways that could affect the public good. In particular, trust-related issues such as authentication and validation, along with their business implications, present significant challenges. This paper explores these issues, including the opportunity that industry and the regulators now have to address them, and suggests approaches to sustainable solutions that can benefit all the stakeholders in this transition.