Cable was to be the blunt instrument that broke open the 80-year-old local telephone monopoly.
Most of Europe's traditional telephone monopolies are under fire from new competitors.
During the years of telephone monopoly, + was 106 (through 1980s) and then 001.
The deal also sets the stage for telephone monopolies in one region to raid the territories of others.
It was completed in 1983, weeks before the telephone monopoly was broken up by the government.
For decades, European governments kept foreign companies from competing with domestic telephone monopolies.
In the early 80s, after years of bitter federal court battle, America's telephone monopoly was pulverized.
Foreign telephone monopolies, which use international rates to subsidize domestic service, are certain to object.
He was the first outsider chosen to head what was then the government's telephone monopoly.
A de facto telephone monopoly position was reached around 1920, and never needed legal sanction.