Digital divide may hang up rustic phones

Deregulating the communications industry may leave rural customers on the wrong side of the digital divide, according to a telecommunications expert.

As a utility, phone companies–called carriers of last resort–are obligated to provide service to customers. To increase profitability, telephone companies would like to be released from the carrier-of-last-resort designation that binds them to providing high-cost, labor-intensive telephone landline service.

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