By Bernard Simon, The New York Times

For the first time since regulators opened Canada's telephone services to competition more than a decade ago, the giants of the industry are confronting a serious threat to their long-entrenched dominance.

The threat comes chiefly from rivals offering the increasingly popular technology known as voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. Their entry has ignited a vigorous debate over the future regulation of Canada's telecommunications services. The crux of the discussion is whether the upstarts in VoIP will be regulated at all, while the two closely regulated market behemoths clamor to be set free.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, which oversees the industry, recently began an extensive review of its policy toward Internet telephony.

Full Story at CNET News