[matterhorn]

Who owns the telecom infrastructure in question? Who built it? Who paid for it? I am very skeptical of anything referred to as "public." What exactly is "public" about it?

[pyre]

AT&T was a government mandated monopoly with gauranteed profits for a while.

[josh2600]

Further, AT&T was a quasi-government entity for almost 40 years starting with World War I.