ZDNet: Story: How the FCC got it 'bass ackwards'
HERE'S HOW and why: The three commissioners who voted "aye" misguidedly placed more importance on traditional, hardwired voice service--a mature market that's starting to show signs of decline. Consider this single, damning statistic: Americans subscribed to 189.1 million phone lines last year, down some 2 percent since 2001, the first year the numbers have fallen since the Depression.

As they communicate more and more via cell phone, Internet telephony, e-mail, and instant messaging, they're depending less and less on traditional phone service. In short, the FCC decided to preserve competition in a market segment that doesn't really need it.

Broadband, by contrast, needs competition badly. And conventional wisdom says it will only need it more and more as time goes by. Those of you who already have a fat pipe at work or at home know the positive impacts of having a fast connection that's always on: It brings the power of the Internet to its full fruition--for communicating, learning, and conducting business.
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2911787,00.html