Vonage faces hangup in Minnesota.(Spotlight: broadband telephony)

Multichannel News, September, 2003 by Brown, Karen

With the regulatory scene far from clear, upstart voice-over-Internet protocol telephone provider Vonage Inc. has run into trouble with the start of Minnesota over whether it should have to gain approval as a telephony provider. Industry observers are watching the case as a possible marker for more regulation to come, even as pressure increases on the Federal Communications Commission to re-examine how IP telephony services are classified.

Concerns began to arise in December when the Minnesota Department of Commerce first spotted Vonage advertisements offering Internet telephony service hi the state, according to Diane Wells, special assistant to the department's deputy commissioner. The commerce department recommended to the state Public...

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