Internet voice technology is not subject to telco rules in Minnesota

A Federal court has ordered the Minnesota telco regulator to stop treating Voice Over IP providers as though they were phone companies. This has been an area of great concern, since it made it appear that the Internet was going to come under the thumb of the thoroughly captured telco regulators, who'd trash our last great hope for bankrupting the telcos while insisting on the local equivalent of horseshoes for steam-engines.

The Minnesota PUC's August decision required Vonage to file with the commission as a telephone company, to receive official certification from the PUC in order to operate in the state and to begin making payments to support 911 service administration.

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