I'm not sure I agree with Mark's viewpoint on this one. Here are my reasons: a) These large telco's are companies that have been proven in courts to be anti-competitive. The CRTC in these cases has been forced to regulate them in order to allow "small fish" to swim in the same pond as the "big sharks". As an employee of an Independant ISP, I have first-hand experience with the way large telco's give with one hand (to please the CRTC and other regulatory bodies) while very wuickly taking with the other (to build their own client base and line their own pockets) making it very difficult for smaller companies to compete. b) Mark argues that regulation would stiffle innovation. Large companies that exert monopoly-like influence (ie. Telus in Alberta) rarely innovate. At least, not when they can maintain the status quo. There is very likely a pronounced difference in areas of the country where Telus and Bell actually compete against each other, but not here in Alberta. The following all are casualties of monopolies: pricing, service, innovation, and ethics. I beleive the CRTC is right in regulating VoIP, at least for now. Once the industry becomes more established is when you can give free reign to anyone to try and grab as much market as they like.