$29B residential phone market seeing cheaper alternatives
According to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required), more phone subscribers are wising up to cheaper alternatives:
The fight for your $36 a month -- the nation's average local phone bill -- is one of the most contentious battlegrounds in the shell-shocked telecom industry. Local phone companies such as Verizon and SBC have long held a chokehold on the $29 billion residential market, largely because customers had no other options. But now, long-distance providers, cable companies and small upstarts are piling into many local markets, offering discounted rates and "bundled" packages that combine local and long distance into a single bill.