ABSTRACT
Meganet is the creation of many organizations, from massive corporations like AT&T to a small rural telephone co-op in Bolivia stringing wires on makeshift poles across the Andean plains. The newcomers have the fiscal resources and management skills needed to complete the global network. They are the new Meganet master builders, each coping with the complexities of the largest construction project of all time. In summary, the old-line telephone companies face formidable competition from thousands of new enterprises. To complicate matters, the phone companies are competing among themselves for business. For decades, federal and state regulators carefully controlled the services each phone company could offer. In summary, the regional Bell companies are increasingly active in global Meganet development. So far, it has been a good business for them. Furthermore, by challenging AT&T and other longtime global operators, they have helped spur competitiveness abroad—a prerequisite for encouraging expansion of advanced Meganet resources in the coming years.
