Tom,

Starting Jan. 2000 if I want to purchase my electric power from ConEd I can.  I
live in Arizona.  So if this is now possible the same could be with water, in
fact Tucson now gets water from the Colorado River (via canal).  With the ever
change world what seemed impossible to accomplish 2 years ago now has a glimmer
of possibility.

L.A.Barnes

Emerson, Tom # El Monte wrote:

> Another aspect of "the breakup" I've heard is that it was actually DESIRED
> by AT&T [well, maybe not entirely, but some aspects were...] This is because
> they wanted to be in the then-booming "PC" business, but since they were a
> "monopoly", the government prohibited them from "branching out" into other
> business areas -- after all, they existed for a single purpose: provide
> phone service nationwide, not phone service and
> oh-by-the-way-we-sell-computers-too...
>
> I also remember from years-ago in school that things like utilities, of
> which phone service certainly qualifies, were best served by "monopolies"
> simply because the mechanism for delivery is rather fixed.  Take as a "for
> instance" deciding to change who supplies your household water: this would
> imply digging up the street to change which pipe runs into your house...
> Likewise, power & phones come in over a physical "infrastructure" that
> cannot be easily modified on a per-user basis.  These "monopolies" have
> traditionally been "government" run [even if just local city government]
> which as someone else pointed out means "run by the people" -- nothing
> (other than apathy) prevents the "people" from demanding change (or lower
> prices, or...)
>
> Tom Emerson
> Sr. Systems Analyst
> NDC | e COMMERCE
> [log in to unmask]
> 626-258-4309
> 626-350-3832 FAX