For Local Phone Users, Choice Isn't an Option.

• Position: Telecommunications industry - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Four years after a grand political compromise among telecommunications interests was supposed to usher in a new era of consumer choice, only about 3' percent of household and small-business telephone lines are served by a competitor to the longstanding local phone company, according to recent preliminary Federal Communications Commission data. At most, some experts believe, no more than one in. 10 households has any real choice at all. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was supposed to sweep away barriers to competition that lingered from the era of the first AT&T breakup, in the early 1980s. But the Baby Bell companies showed a greater penchant for consolidation than for competition, and most upstart local phone carriers decided to focus on serving business customers rather than consumers. Consumer advocates say that the local phone giants are set to maintain their dominance in the $100 billion local communications...