schoumacher: henry geller, former general counsel of the federal communications commission, was one oftelephone policymakers. well, i can understand what was in it for the phone companies, buy why did the government buy this arrangement? the government bought it because what he promised them was universal service. he as going to -- at reasonable rates -- he was going to -- as a monopoly he could expand, give this integrated end-to-end service. it was good service. remember, it's not a cliche -- the u.s. had the best telephone service, and still has the best telephone service, in the world. when you consider back then with the mkrers and l ofherustting that was going on, this almost seemed to run counter to the currents of those times. well, but even then, i want to go b back to something. vail may actually have been right. remember that the only technology then is the wire. how many of them are you going to string? it's very expensive to string it. you're not going to string two down the street. there are economies of scale. and you will end up with one company buying out the other. sc