On the other hand, as you have seen with your own children, by three years old, the child has changed from a baby to a little person, in whose face one can see the shape of the adult that the child will become. At its third birthday, the Telecom Act is in a similar place. We can already see the benefits that it has brought us. And we can see the shape of the new competitive world yet to come. By every measure, the telecommunications industry is thriving.
Stock values are up and rising.
The revenues of new local service providers more than doubled in 1997, and they almost doubled again in 1998. And this growth has meant new jobs for approximately 25,000 more Americans in the first year of the Act alone. Your industry has been a key ingredient of this growth. One-fourth of our country's economic growth has come from the information technology sector. You have enriched our nation and enriched our lives.