Static on the Line; Washington's crazy quilt of regulations governing all the different phone technologies is partly to blame for the churn in the industry these days.

Publication: Newsweek

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Byline: Allan Sloan, Sloan is NEWSWEEK's Wall Street editor. His e-mail is sloan@panix.com.

America is obsessive about breakups. People can't get enough of Liza and David Gest, Ben and Jen, Britney and her boy toy (or husband) of the moment. But given our collective infatuation, it's surprising that the 20th anniversary of the most important breakup of our time has come and gone virtually unnoticed: AT&T's. We're not just talking history, folks--it's current events, because the legacy of splitting AT&T into eight pieces on Jan. 1, 1984, is affecting the newest hot technology: voice over the Internet.

Let's start with a few basic facts. When you make a call, you pick up a phone...

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