The local telephone market is worth about $100 billion.

In their territories they tend to control 90 percent of the local telephone market.

Last year, the wireless telephone market in China was $20 billion.

Patents locked all competitors out of the telephone market from the late 1870s until 1894.

At the moment, bypass companies account for less than 1 percent of the local telephone market.

The other side of the bargain - opening the local telephone market - will also be a big experiment.

At stake is more than just Germany's $50 billion telephone market, big as that is.

So the regional companies are targeting telephone markets across the Atlantic.

They are by far the most lucrative segment of the local telephone market.

Holding up competition are state laws that keep cable companies out of telephone markets.