It should be obvious that they love some regulation, but not all of it. For example if AT&T and Verizon are so keen on it then why are they spending so much mon

It should be obvious that they love some regulation, but not all of it. For example if AT&T and Verizon are so keen on it then why are they spending so much money fighting net neutrality regulation? Regulatory oversight of big players in one market to stop them crushing smaller players in dependent markets doesn't have to impose any obligations at all on those smaller players. Think about the App Store - if Apple were regulated so that they had to approve Google Voice-like apps, which Application Writers would that impose obligations on? Regulations are also sometimes set up so that they only touch big players. Monopoly regulation being the prime example. Finally some startups have actually gained advantage from regulation by ignoring it and choosing to accept the risk of their LLC possibly being sued. That's a heck of a lot cheaper than thousands of lawyer-hours and huge technical complexity. Skype and 911 is a good example.