A clone of what Level3 is offering has been created by Nuvio and 1TouchTone. The concept seems to make sense. Once company provides the technology package, the other provides the billing and more important customer facing and marketing.
These are much like the providers who Virgin and AT&T have opted to buy from to launch their MVNOs.
The first level of customer are ISP’s, but in reality anyone with this solution can become a phone company.
Expect to see a bunch of resellers of telephone equipment find a way to keep their customers and sell in next generation services as VVNO’s (Virtual Voice Network Operators) come on board.