Bold prediction: telcos will become wholesale providers

[SOURCE: MuniWireless.com, AUTHOR: Esme Vos]
[Commentary] The telcos' desire to eat out of two pots - charging customers for access to the network and content providers for access to those customers - is nothing more than fantasy perpetuated by nervous managers to calm down nervous investors, who suspect that, indeed, the Age of Big Telecom has faded into history like bowler hats and crinolines. There are several reasons why telcos cannot eat out of two pots and why they will end up as wholesale providers: 1) there is now a business model that allows companies such as Google and the people who partner with them (municipalities, ISPs, content providers) to offer free Internet access, free voice calls and even free entertainment programs; 2) (the open network model has been proven in Europe and Asia to lead to higher rates of broadband penetration, lower prices and more bandwidth; 3) high tech companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Apple simply won't let them, and 4) the telecos underestimate just how much the public hates them.
http://www.tropos.com/newsletters/2006-01-27_guestcommentary.html