The emerging marketplace holds both challenges and opportunities for consumers.
Deregulation allows consumers to bargain-hunt for the service package that best fits their needs.
The long-distance telephone market is crowded with competitors, all jockeying for market share. Many conduct aggressive promotional campaigns that include energetic telemarketing. At the same time, alternative providers are entering the local telephone business. In Milwaukee, for example, there are now seven local service providers competing for business with Ameritech, the entrenched local service provider. Smaller cities, like Madison and its suburb, Middleton, are also seeing the entry of new local service providers into the marketplace.