"All signs point to FCC rules protecting those big bad telcos. "
Incorrect.
It's happening at state level.
The Public Utilities Commissions have granted legislated local monopolies to the telcos almost forever and it's pretty clear that some pretty larges amounts of backscratching is going on, given the promises being made in exchange for those concessions (and large sums of state govt money) that keep getting broken, yet the PUCs continue to add more rights and toss more money at the telcos without asking any questions.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
