Jeff Pulver made a mention of the CRTC’s notice about Voice over IP. While I don’t have much of the background on telecommunications law, the CRTC is saying that they feel VoIP carriers should be subjected to the same regulations that the Bellheads follow.

My layman’s view of this is that it’s a bad idea. Many of these laws came in to place to compensate for the years of monopolies the ILECs had, and are to help increase competition. If competition, and more specifically, the consumer, are on the CRTC’s mind, it would seem to me the best approach would be to let the VoIP carriers be free from the bonds of regulation.

I’ll be researching this more closely, and hopefully understand enough to make a submission to the CRTC by the April 28’th deadline. I encourage any Canadians reading this to do the same.