[ivany]

Very interesting article, for a number of reasons. Back in the 90s I was just a kid, but I distinctly recall the major changes in the telecom landscape happening then: DSL/Cable internet access becoming "a thing" as well as huge changes in telephone rates & rate structures. It's always interesting to read articles describing the history of market changes in retrospect. Also, it's eye-opening to learn how we got to where we are now (arguably crappy telecom infrastructure) and about the regulatory changes that guided us.

This piece is from 2006. What I'd really like to see is a similar article written today about the wireless telecom industry. Certainly the wireless telecom has been a pretty exciting industry in this past decade - smartphones are very, very mainstream now (if I had a Palm VII when I was in school, I would have undoubtedly been denounced as more of a dork than I already was) and sms/wireless internet access has arguably supplanted actual voice communication, at least in the younger crowd. At the same time, costs for these services have increased substantially. Just five years ago, I remember paying $30 for basic cell phone service. With a smart phone, can you even get voice+data for less than $60 or so? The pattern for industry consolidation is following the wired telecom's footsteps. I guess we'll see in the next few years if the wireless telecom market becomes as consolidated as the wired market is today.