Qwest is playing the game Wall Street wants it to play.

That game is predicated on the assumption that there can only be a few big "winners" and everyone else is a loser.

Wall Street also believes that tleecommunications is fearfully expensive to provide, that it is a "capital-intensive" business.

In this analysis, Moore's Law is ignored. Forget how fiber becomes more efficient with each passing year. Forget how we use bandwidth more efficiently, or how the cost of processing goes down.

To Wall Street, telecommunications is capital intensive and there can only be a few winners. Period. The end.

Brain-dead thinking can still be controlling if everyone goes along with the game, as they are in this case.

The only "costs" that are high in telecomm are regulatory costs. Most are imposed by the carriers themselves. It's a regulatory cost that keeps companies like Qwest and Verizon from wholesaling capacity. It's a regulatory cost that keeps cellular licenses valuable.

It is government that is keeping this thinking alive, government that is pushing industry consolidation, government that is keeping prices high.

Forget the rhetoric of this government. Look at the results.

The only people making out in this environment are the CEOs, investment bankers and politicians.

How poor and expensive must our service get before voters wake up? The CEOs and investment bankers will make our regardless.

Replace the politicians.