Stance on competition is in what SBC does, not says
[SOURCE: Houston Chronicle, AUTHOR: Loren Steffy]
[Editorial] If deregulation has taught us anything, it's to be suspicious when former monopolists start talking about competition. So if erstwhile monopolist SBC thinks Houston Mayor Bill White's plan for a citywide wireless broadband network is bad, then it's probably good for consumers. Phone companies like SBC received $5 billion in federal subsidies last year, according to a Wall Street Journal report this summer. When you consider how much government coin is filling their pockets, it's no wonder the phone companies want to block municipal WiFi. They don't want to share the gravy train. Having a chokehold on the market appeals to the company's monopolist roots. If you want DSL service in the Houston area, for example, in most cases you have to have SBC phone service, regardless of your Internet provider. SBC can do that because it controls the plumbing. It did, of course, build its telephone network, but it didn't do it alone. It relied on agreements with cities similar to the WiFi plan that White now envisions. That's not to say the mayor's plan will succeed. There's a host of technical and financial problems to overcome, and there's the risk that by the time a widespread WiFi network is built, the technology will have been surpassed by new innovations.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3469077
Stance on competition is in what SBC does, not says