101 Use the table of contents below to jump to the stories that interest you, or use the scroll bar to browse through the entire issue. Based on recommendations made by the Rural Task Force , which consists of representatives from rural telcos, competitive carriers, long distance carriers, wireless carriers, consumer groups and state regulatory agencies, the FCC modified its existing universal service support process to ensure that telephone service remains affordable throughout the United States. The Baby Bells have traditionally targeted the higher population regions of the country, and have sold most of their rural facilities to small, independent telcos, said Bob Rosenberg, a research analyst with the Parsippany, N.J.-based Insight Research Corp . The Bottom Line Left to their own devices, without any government support, telcos would abandon the rural areas. The FCC should continue to monitor the state of telecommunications in rural America.
Studies show that people are abandoning the fruited plains and purple mountain majesties in droves.
The truth of that grows more evident by the day. A reality check was sorely overdue. It began the process of snapping up the remains of the dot-com companies at bargain basement prices. It bolted on the new shop windows and proceeded to do business as before, but with a new and valuable sales dimension that reached out into cyberspace. The few dot-coms that survive are discovering that the old economy still has legs.