From the mouth of Chris Kramer (senior spokesman for Capcom USA) at TGS 2009
"It's something that we're looking into at the moment and there are a few factors to consider. Firstly, Monster Hunter isn't as popular in the West, so it might put people off. Secondly, Japan doesn't have Friend Codes, so Capcom run all the servers and the monthly fee is essentially to pay for those costs."
As expected, we may not have to pay monthly fee's for the western release of MH. Makes sense, none of the previous titles had fees outside of Japan and if anything is going to put off potential new Hunters it would have been the monthly fee.
In other news, Ryozo Tsjmoto mentioned WiiSpeak again in an interview with G4;
We're looking into right now whether it's technically possible or not. And so if it is, maybe we'll make an announcement. If it isn't, you know, if it realistically can't be done, then I'm sorry we may have to leave it out. But we're looking into it."
Nothing definite but this is the second time WiiSpeak has been mentioned so who knows, maybe we will get lucky and finally see voice chat. It's never been make-or-break for me that MH has voice chat to be honest. I certainly wouldn't complain if we got it though...
[source]