The FCC this week removed a regulatory hurdle that would have hampered the market for Internet-based phone calls based on the Voice over IP (VoIP) standard. The move came at the request of Vonage, which had asked the FCC to declare its VoIP product an interstate service, which protects it from the often-Byzantine regulatory control it would face in each state in the United States. "By fencing off these services from unnecessary regulation, this order will help unleash a torrent of innovation," said FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy in what is perhaps the understatement of the decade. Vonage currently offers unlimited calling in the United States and Canada for $25 per month and boasts 300,000 customers, but the market for VoIP services is expected to jump dramatically over the next year. We can thank the FCC at least partially for that
