Regulators everywhere want to see local loops unbundled but cannot agree a fair and equitable means of doing so. The problem has particularly bedevilled the US, where five years after the Telecommunications Act, a level playing field is still not in place. So is the FCC using the wrong cost model to try and balance the interests of incumbents with new operators? And what analytical tools should we be using to evaluate alternative models?

This article was published in info, Vol 3, No 1, April 2001.