Well, I'll repeat that I'm still in shock that an RBOC fell into such disarray that they had to be bought out by an independent (Century). To make matters worse: A Bell territory being taken over by the former #5 independent?

Something is wrong with this picture. Financial mismanagement is the first thing that comes to my mind. Since that issue is already well-known, QWest pretty much did themselves in.

What a shame. Gone was the Bell System anyway, but I still can't believe that something like this could happen. Customers end up getting the shaft.

It used to be the other way around: Former Bell companies usually purchased independents, as in Bell Atlantic purchasing GTE. OK, it was a bit of a joke in my mind, since these companies operated at such opposite ends of the LEC spectrum. GTE purchased a myriad of dumpy independents' territories and their practices were even more of a joke.

I sat back thinking that this cannot possibly continue. Just the silly outside plant standards that GTE permitted seemed to be enough. I never thought that this would be something that a Bell company would adopt without a completely new build out. Oh boy, was I wrong.

Wrong was an understatement. It is all about money now. While the money part makes sense, it saddens me to see the Bell reputation of excellence become more of a distant memory. While we are 'fortunate' enough to retain Verizon in this area, I'm not sure how long it will be before this market is sold out to perhaps another independent. China Telcom? Who knows?

FIoS is a dead-end street for the typical end-user since by their committing to this service, they effectively eliminate their choices. Once one takes the dive, and since FIoS is not regulated, the customer loses many things. These include 'real' dial tone, options for LD service providers, etc.

I really need to stop here. Dollars are starting to make less 'cents'.

Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX