SkypeIn and the CRTC

Skype announced a cool little feature whereby your SkypeIn number will be displayed when you call via SkypeOut. I know that this has been requested since the first day SkypeIn was launched and it's nice to see it finally arrive. There are ton's of legal and regulation issues in each country regarding this type of service.

Unfortunately in Canada we still don't even have SkypeIn numbers. This is thanks to the wonderful CRTC which controls our airwaves. They are here to "protect" the consumers which is funny considering Canada has some of the highest mobile/phone rates in the world. We have 3 companies that control most of the phone, tv and internet in the country, one of which will probably go private in the next little while. If the CRTC was serious about protecting the consumer then they'd open up the market and allow some additional competition in from the US and Europe. Then maybe we could finally get SkypeIn numbers. :)