TELEBOMB

The Telecommunications Act of 1996, designed to bring competition and growth to a monolithic industry through deregulation, was instead the final catalyst in detonating the "telebomb"--an epidemic of problems, from customer frustration and stockholder revolt to financial crisis and outright crime. With telecommunications now encompassing not only the telephone industry but also cable television, Internet, and wireless providers, the stakes grow higher--and the terrain riskier--every day... What are the industry and the regulators doing about it? Not nearly enough, argues John Handley. Telebomb describes the origins of the mounting crisis and follows, point by point, the trajectory of the industry, from before the 1984 AT&T breakup, through the sky's -the-limit late 1990s, to the cutthroat chaos of today's telecom megacorporations. And it describes both the perils of inaction and a workable plan to help the industry right itself... The entry of the regional Bell companies (still..