Local service is not monopolized anymore. I've actually had CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) service here at home, though it's certainly much easier to get it as a business customer. Plus, at the time my CLEC was GTE, but it appeared that they were just leasing lines from my LEC, BellSouth, so I managed to get both GTE's and BellSouth's screwups. So I changed back.