Once feeling like children at recess, VoIP telephone service providers are somewhat chastened after this week's unanimous Federal Communications Commission vote requiring voice over Internet protocol services that connect to the public-switched telephone network to subsidize the network they compete with directly.

But VoIP industry leaders have no one but themselves to blame for the hit consumers will soon take as a result of the FCC's action.

While it might be tempting to symapathize with the plight of a fledgling industry, it was not long ago when VoIP providers had high-ranking policy makers firmly on their side. But they failed to take advantage of their influence to chart a more friendly regulatory course for themselves.

Wednesday's ruling is the second significant blow in a little over a year to the "no regulation" status of Internet commerce, since the FCC voted last May to require Internet telephone companies to provide emergency 911 service to their customers.

FCC Chair Kevin Martin

The new order also requires wireless telephone service providers to increase contributions to the 70 year-old fund created to subsidize the wired telephone network in rural and low-income areas nationwide by contributing to a Universal Service Fund from new fees imposed on VoIP customers.

Many wireless and VoIP industry representatives decried the move, citing its backward-looking focus on a service waning in usage and demand.

Jim Kohlenberger, executive director of the VON Coalition, which represents the Internet phone industry, told Anne Broache at C|Net the ruling "is like trying to solve traffic and energy problems by stifling the rollout of energy-efficient hybrid vehicles, while subsidizing SUVs."

According to estimates of the ruling's effect done by his group, Kohlenberger says VoIP customers could owe as much as $2.12 extra on a $30 monthly bill because of the changes, while traditional wireline users would pay $1.38 on a comparable bill, and wireless users will pay an average of $1.21.

Jeff Pulver, a pioneer in the VoIP industry responsible for bringing together the technology, its marketers and consumers for well over a decade, told American Public Media, "At a time when America is flying behind the world in broadband deployment, [this ruling] makes no sense whatsoever."