http://www.turn.org/downloads/TURN-Telco-Competition-Is-Failing-Full-Report.pdf
Good documentation of what happened when CA deregulated its telecom market in anticiaption of competition replacing regulation. Answer: prices went up, most would-be competitors exited the market when deregulation resulted in a price squeeze (which the Surpreme Court said recently was not an anitrust violation).
Also noted: cable does not create price competition.
Mind you, I predicted this last february based on preliminary figures:
http://www.wetmachine.com/totsf/item/1050
And, as I explained then, it is not really fair to call this a market failure. The market is functioning in a highly predictable way. It just is not working out the way believers in the Gods of the Marketplace would like.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since 'Deregulation' began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Libertarian finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And when all regulation is vanquished, and the brave new world begins
Where incumbents have no market power, and consumers are never locked-in,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.
Hmmm....taste the Cassandrafreude.