I don't speak for BroadVoice, but this seams to be to be stupid. Why should the government get involved in ISPs blocking ports? If customers don't like it, go to a new provider, what country is this??
I'm curious how you'd feel if your local telephone company started preventing you from calling its competitors. How about if you suddenly discover your car won't drive you to a competitor's dealership due to a lockout included by the manufacturer (that you neither knew about nor agreed to when you bought it). It is only in the Internet business and the software business that a company can sell you a product with no representations that it will actually do anything and with you having essentially no recourse if it doesn't meet your expectations. If I pay for Internet access, I expect to get it. And if you're not actually providing Internet access, don't clima to. The Internet is not ports, it's not machines, it's not protocols. We could change all that and it could still be the Internet. The Internet is a philosophy, and the results of that philosophy. It's about making a good faith best effort to connect to and exchange information with anyone else who makes a similar effort. Let's not lose sight of the big picture. I sympathize with the "if you don't like it go elsewhere" view, but I also believe that people should provide the service they agreed to be provide, and when they fail to do so without justification, they should be penalized for their fraud. DS