Like the AOL of old, Vonage has cultivated quite a reputation as a company that often makes it incredibly difficult to actually cancel your service. The check for this behavior has finally come due, and it's likely considerably less than they made from the practice. According to an announcement posted to the website of Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, Vonage has agreed to pay $3 million in penalties to 32 states in order to settle an investigation into some of its business practices. The settlement also cites Vonage for failing to note their VoIP service needed broadband and then socking customers with cancellation fees, and for offers of "free" services that wound up charging a litany of activation and other fees.

Comcast is reportedly in the midst of testing femtocells, devices which essentially act as an indoor tower for wireless voice and data services -- allowing you to place calls over your home broadband connection. Comcast's investment deal with Clearwire included a provision that set aside 5 MHz of spectrum solely for WiMAX femtocells, but an anonymous source tells Fierce Wireless that deployment of the service won't happen until next year -- if it happens at all. Comcast of course offers re-branded Clearwire wireless broadband service as part of a new suite of bundles being offered in three markets so far. Ultimately, Clearwire and Comcast will likely deploy voice services over the Mobile WiMax network. Given the initial problems users are seeing with Clearwire signal, femtocells will likely be a necessary evolution.

Last month AT&T announced that they'd no longer be blocking VoIP programs like Skype from working over 3G. AT&T said they were taking a "fresh look" at VoIP capabilities on iPhone for use on AT&T's 3G network, and the move was soundly heralded by both the press and the FCC as a step in the right direction. A month later though and Om Malik reminds us that things still haven't changed -- at least over on Apple's side of the equation. AppleT&T's still blocking VoIP over the iPhone's 3G connection for programs like Skype, but also smaller operators like Truphone, Fring, and Nimbuzz.

A new report by Infonetics Research indicates that VoIP service generated a whopping $21 billion for global service providers during the first half of 2009. The majority of that revenue came from residential VoIP service, and as most of you are aware, the majority (more than 90%) of the residential VoIP industry is now dominated by the biggest cable TV operators.

The biggest cable TV operator is of course Comcast, and Comcast is now the third largest residential phone operator in the United States. Japan's NTT, France Telecom, and Comcast collectively own more than 20% of the world's VoIP subscribers, notes Infonetics.

We've frequently explored how a growing number of VoIP companies were blocking FreeConferencecall.com, because the service relies on a practice known as "traffic pumping," a regulatory loophole that allows small, rural telcos to sock bigger carriers with huge connectivity fees. A few years back, AT&T tried to block access to such services but were yelled at by the FCC because it breaks common carrier laws. VoIP operators are under no such restrictions, which is why everybody from Speakeasy to MajicJack freely blocks access.

Free conference services users may not like it, but given they're not a common carrier, Google Voice is similarly under no restrictions, and has blocked user access to these services as well.