Andrew Odlyzko, in addition to being a serious mathematician, has published some of the more prescient papers on telecom and the Internet. His latest piece, Pricing and Architecture of the Internet: Historical Perspectives from Telecommunications and Transportation, is a must read for anyone interested in the subject.
It continues on some of his earlier themes, but speaks directly to VoIP and regulation. Andy updates his famous "value of a bit" table ... the average cost per MB for cable TV is 0.012 cents, broadband Internet rises to 2.5 cents, a wired phone is 8 cents, dialup Internet is 33 cents, a cellphone is $3.50 and SMS is $3000 - about 7 orders of magnitude!
He notes the inefficiencies of current VoIP (although he agrees with most people that it will eventually win - it will take longer than most people predict).
