Saw a quote on Techdirt.com today, and this pretty much sums up the situation, even though its in an article unrelated to the topic:
"...in the US, where regulators dither and let incumbent telcos continue to abuse the public benefits they've been handed while letting them wriggle out of pretty much every competitive measure imposed on them. All the while, the FCC sings the praises of the competitive US market, while other countries like France lead the way."
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060410/0947233.shtml