Free ride over for VoIP?
Ben Charny,
CNet News.com,
Aug 25, 2003
The state of Minnesota has ordered VoIP (Voice over IP) providers to file for a telephone operator's license in a move which, while it will be welcomed by telephone companies (facing devastation as their primary business disappears), seems otherwise inexplicable. Minnestoa is only the first of a number of states to make the move. But there is some sense to the move: the state would like to collect taxes from the companies, and as well, would like to enforce such things provision of wiretaps for law enforcement. But of course such regulation has a way of getting out of hand, and if the purpose (as with so much internet regulation) becomes nothing more than the protection of existing businesses and pricing levels, then it becomes regressive.
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