2 takes totaling 1773 words. By Rebecca Blumenstein. Moved as f0083-4. Five years since the passage of the Telecommunications Reform Act, huge segments of the industry are in dire straits. Consumers, many say, aren't much better off than before.
Government officials are at odds about how to fix it all.
2 takes totaling 1595 words. By Deborah Solomon. Moved as f0089-90. The number of customers who say they are dissatisfied with the quality of their local-phone service rose to nearly 17 percent last year from 10.5 percent in 1997, says the Federal Communications Commission. This, of course, isn't the way the great reshaping of the United States communications system was supposed to turn out.