My ninth grade world history teacher, Royal Black, a regal African American if I ever met one, and also an amazing teacher, was the first person to ever use the line to me 'history always repeats.' Like my college freshman Economics 1 professor Dr. McKenna who said "short term loss, long term gain"
Anyway, in reading this L.A. Times story I'm drawn to the parallel to what they both educated me on when my mind was less clouded by experience and more filled with wonderment.
Basically the cable guys are carving up the USA through a series of territory swaps to be what the telcos were pre-divestiture in the 80s and before all the consolidation. What we're seeing is the Wall Street led M&A's that lead to this consolidation effect where the MSO's basically mirror in many ways the old Bells. Now they are offering Phone service en masse, while the Phone guys venture into cable's stronghold, delivering content in a patch work manner (FTTP, FIOS) just like the early days of cable.
I wonder when one of the cable guys breaks rank and tries to buy QWEST. With the heart of cable really having major roots in Denver, and that being QWEST's home ground, I figure someone will make that move, the question is only when....You see, history always repeats...and the phone guys bought up the wireless players for the most part, so why not see it happen in this realm.