I am not sure. Business lines are significantly higher priced than residential lines and the conventional wisdom was that there is a cross sudsidy. How it shakes out across all phone lines is unclear to me. A lot depends on the economic realism of depreciation schedule. I'm not familiar with how plant is depreciated. An interesting issue related is the book value of assets. Does anyone believe that the book value of telecom assets approximates its market value? In other words, I suspect at least some of the competitive players are insolvent (negative net worth) since their physical assets would only fetch a pittance in a Chapter 7 auction. And yes, I decline to identify specific cases. :) Regards, Roderick S. Beck Director of European Sales Hibernia Atlantic 13-15, rue Sedaine, 75011 Paris http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com Wireless: 1-212-444-8829. French Landline: 33+1+4355+8224 French Wireless: 33-6-14-33-48-97. AOL Messenger: GlobalBandwidth rod.beck@hiberniaatlantic.com rodbeck@erols.com ``Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.'' Albert Einstein.