facing the ILECs? Should the industry just get it over with and "revest" itself? What are the biggest challenges facing the cable sector? Why were the component manufacturers least affected by the burst bubble? What lessons do we learn about the component industry by studying the steel industry? What is softswitch and why is it important? Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Source: Telecom Crash Course CHAPTER Final Summary Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright 2004 The McGraw-HillCompanies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Final Summary Chapter 9 As I write this final chapter for the second edition of Telecom Crash Course, I am sitting on a lounge chair in the backyard of my South African colleague Roy Marcus, founder of the Da Vinci Institute, listen- ing to the exotic calls of South African weaver birds in the trees and mon- strous frogs in the pond. It is November, and therefore midsummer; today it's well over 100 degrees. I've spent the last few months working closely with Telkom, the incumbent, monopoly service provider for South Africa, helping them prepare for the arrival of a truly competitive mar- ket in their country, which has begun to happen following the govern- ment's recent announcement of second carriers in the country. In many ways it is reminiscent of AT&T in late 1983, just before divestiture. In other ways, it is actively, dynamically, dramatically different. There is no question that things will change here in the coming months as competi- tion takes root at the local level and introduces chaos into the game; on the other hand, there are few places I have been in this world where there is so much hope, so much promise, so much vibrancy in the market. These are capable, clever, truly entrepren