The telecom marketplace is so dynamic, it really doesn't need any 'help' from the regulators or the Justice Department. "Hands off" is a better policy at this stage. It's pretty clear at this stage that the end game is broadband in every home and that voice will be only one of many services traveling over that pipe.
The real issue that public policy should address is encouraging private sector broadband penetration to as much geography as possible, whether that broadband is on copper, cable, fiber optics or wireless.
"Despite the market bottlenecks, broadband is increasingly in demand for its ability to let users zip e-mail back and forth with big photo or music files attached; or to play online games; or to quickly open Web pages loaded with video and audio extras. Of the nation's 74.5 million Internet households, an estimated 39 percent now have broadband - up from 36 percent of Internet households at the end of 2003.
So popular is the service, and so few the alternatives for most consumers, that the three biggest regional Bell companies - SBC, Verizon and BellSouth - have been able to expand their share of the Internet broadband market even while declining to sell the service separately."
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