telecommunication competition: much ado about nothing?

Competition in the provision of telecommunications in the USA is now nearly three decades old. Although there are many smaller companies involved in its provision, the same big companies that provided telecommunication service decades ago are all still present, and seem to be actually becoming bigger. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know whether consumers are being served better with today's forms of contrived competition than they would have been if the old monopoly had continued to evolve. Furthermore, various subsidies within telecommunication continue to link the various potential competitors and also create artificial opportunities.