rall, opportunities for growth are constrained geographically and technically. Relief from the geographic restraint provides opportun- ity in the form of incremental revenue from long distance services, but it is in exchange for unbundling network elements for sale to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), who turn right around 2 INTERNET AND TELECOM: A BRIEF HISTORY and bundle and sell these same network elements in the same market, depriving them of pieces of their most profitable revenue streams. Many of the ILECs profess to be interested in broadband equipment and facilities. Establishing significant levels of service requires sig- nificant investment in new equipment. There's been an initial "toe in the water" in the form of digital subscriber line (DSL) equipment acquisition and service offerings. But for anything significant such as would allow them to take market share from broadcasting, cable television, or satellite operators, the investment would have to be fiber replacement of copper wire, with IP access, switching and transport, in essence a wholesale replacement of existing infrastruc- ture over time and that wouldn't necessarily relieve them of their regulatory requirement to continue selling unbundled network elem- ents (UNE). On the less than major player side of the market, there are the CLECs mentioned previously. CLEC business strategy comes in two forms: one sells Internet access and the other buys and sells unbundled network elements mentioned previously. Others, and as of the publi- cation time of this book (early 2004), there are a few who have invested in their own facilities in large markets where the investment level is potentially rewarding because of short transmission distance and access to the more lucrative enterprise customer. One or two of the cable television operators have installed SONET/SDH equipment on common fiber with TV service and offer voice service in the residential market. They have been moderately successful, but real returns are only incremental mostly becaus