A little history... Remember, MCI went bankrupt and was eventually bought by Verizon.  MCI was in competition with Verizon and tried desparately (and unsuccessfully I might add) to enter the LEC (Local Exchange Carrier) space.  But in order to do that, not having a local infrastructure themselves, were reliant on leased lines from the incumbent LEC, Verizon.  Verizon would stall, lose orders, and generally not cooperate, and resort to ANYTHING to keep MCI out of the LEC market during that time.  When MCI was restructuring its debt, it was for sale.  Now, Vint Cerf used to work at MCI as I did.  There was a reason Vint worked there.  It was because MCI had more global internet infrastructure than any other company in the world and had by far the largest global network by that time.  AT&T liked to think and claim that they did, but MCI was able to force them to withdraw those claims multiple times.  But, to the point... during the restructuring, it was rumored more than once that M$ was considering buying MCI.  Now think about that scenario for a minute.  Talk about a nightmare!  M$ owning and controlling the lion's share of the Internet by buying the largest Internet common carrier there was?... Geez!  Just the thought gives me the creeps.  I'd rather eat razor blades than think about it.  

My point being that common carriers using technological strong arming to secure and maintain market space is commonplace.  It won't be until somebody throws all the switches to the "on" position and uses that to compete 'til all the others will be forced to do the same.  Like MCI did with "Friends and Family" and including call waiting, call forwarding, voice mail, caller ID, and all the other goodies in the package.  What a lot of people forget is that all of these features are included in the switching and routing equipment.  They keep charging people for turning them on (and charging for connection fees, unending service contracts, stifling early termination penalties and all other sorts of heinous junk) until one company steps out of that mold.  It's just a matter of time.  And it will probably be a new start up.  One day some body's going to do it and then we will all be able to get the combinations of goods and services we desire.

My $0.02

Tim