The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has been denied regulation of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services by the Eight US Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. VoIP technology allows you to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission believes VoIP providers should be regulated as they do traditional phone companies. A lower court ruling said that Vonage(large VOIP provider) provided more of an information service than a telecommunications service and should not be governed like a phone company. The order by the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upholds a lower-court ruling.

The Federal Communications Commission last month issued its own rules saying that VoIP providers should not be regulated or taxed via the same provisions as telephone service providers.

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