of competition. The promises were dramatic. From the Bell Atlantic 1993 Annual Report [35], Divestiture: Equal Access and Chinese Walls First, we announced our intention to lead the country in the deployment of the information highway We will spend $11 billion over the next five years to rapidly build full-service networks capable of providing these (interactive, multimedia communications, entertainment, and information) services within the Bell Atlantic Region. We expect Bell Atlantic's enhanced network will be ready to serve 8.75 mil- lion homes by the end of the year 2000. By the end of 1998, we plan to wire the top 20 markets These investments will help establish Bell Atlantic as world leader in what is clearly the high growth opportunity for the 1990s and beyond. Likewise, in that same year's Annual Report, US West said, "In 1993 the company announced its intentions to build a 'broadband,' interactive tele- communications network. US West anticipates converting 100,000 access lines to this technology by the end of 1994, and 500,000 access lines annually beginning in 1995." These promises were typical. They were also hollow. A few telephone companies experimented with hybrid fiber-coax cable TV plant, and a very few fiber-to-the-home lines were tried, but the highest-speed residential service that the RBOCs offered by the end of the century was ADSL, using the old copper plant. Rate caps were, however, good for RBOC profits, as they sub- stantially downsized their labor forces through layoffs and early retirement programs. The Divestiture Era can be described as the 12-year period between 1984, when AT&T was broken up, and 1996, when the Telecom Act took effect. It began with a bang, the creation of eight companies that had formerly been one, and the creation of a fully competitive long distance market. But its net impact was, on balance, probably less than one might have expected. By the early 1990s, both the equipment and service-provider markets were consolidating. Long distance rates were falling, but the