WSJ: Phone Industry Faces Upheaval as Ways of Calling Change Fast

The RBOCs have lost some 28 million local access lines since the end of 2000 — a drop of more than 18% — due to wireless substitution and, increasingly, competition from VoIP competitors, according to a front page article in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal. The newspaper compares the looming threat faced by local phone business to the ordeal of the railroads following the widespread availability of automobiles in the boom years after World War II. Doreen Toben, Verizon’s CFO, is quoted as saying that cable VoIP has become a “real threat.”http://www.wsj.com