Will cable and phone companies really be fighting to get your local telephone business? The Florida Legislature passed a bill this month that is supposed to bring about such competition. Along with ...

COLUMBUS -- In response to hearings held Tuesday in the Ohio General Assembly, a group of advocacy organizations said legislation to deregulate local telephone service statewide will hurt consumers.

Rules that force firms to share every resource or element of a business would create, not competition, but pervasive regulation, for the regulators, not the marketplace, would set the relevant terms.