TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to snipped-for-privacy@bbs.cpcn.com:
There are a lot of guilty parties in this.
Some state legislatures and PUCs that purport to be protecting consumers actually end up costing consumers money and adding to confusion.
For example, take the conversion from calls being cash toll to message unit, many consumers would end up saving money. Under the cash system, every call was a charge. Under the message unit system, every customer had an allotment of units; if they did not exceed that allotment they got free calls that otherwise would've cost. Further, the cost per msg-unit dropped for high volumes, so high volume callers got an additional discount. The phone company gained efficiency by avoding detail billing of literally nickel and dime calls which was passed on to consumers.
Well, the PUCs mandated detail billing which raised the cost and other modifications in the public interest. They made something that was relatively simple rather complex.
Fast forward to today's phone bill. My bill is so thick it requires extra weight postage yet I have flat rate service! There are many lines of detailed expenses for literally pennies. Money is broken down into many overlapping categories that make no sense. This confusion isn't from the phone company, it's from government milking the taxes and PUCs trying to "protect" me (and deadbeats who don't pay their bills).
The government mandated "competition" so we had an explosion of new exchanges. That meant 10,000 numbers were set aside even though only a few hundred at most would be used. That resulted in numerous new area codes and overlays which add to the confusion.
The old line phone companies adopted a "can't beat them, then join them" philosophy. They're getting hammered by cheapo and sleazy competitors so they've had to do the same practices to cut costs and lower prices.
Let me emphasize that competition does not mean prices will be as low as possible. Prices will drop to a common shared equilibrium. Cell phones run around $40/month now they were a lot cheaper before. All the companies charge roughly the same. They could lower prices but don't want to.