More than 75 members of Congress are urging the head of the Federal Communications Commission to delay next week's vote on a proposal to overhaul key pieces of telecommunications regulation.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants to change the complicated menu of fees that phone companies pay to connect calls with each other's networks. The upshot is that there will be more uniform, lower rates. Obviously, this has stuck the telcos into a spin.  They like the complicated system because it means that they can charge customers what they like.

It is also an election year and the telcos have paid a fortune in bribes, er campaign contributions, to have congressmen do as there are told. This does not apply to all the phone companies such as Verizon Communications and AT&T. They argue that existing rules are outdated and based on obsolete rules. However, they have a vested interest in that they are fed up with having to pay large amounts of cash to smaller companies to relay their traffic.

It is the competing carriers and rural phone companies, which fear it could erode the money they get for completing phone calls to their subscribers.