Telecom Changes Put Competition on the Line

For most of the industrial age, homes primarily communicated tothe outside world through a basic copper phone wire.

Now, telephone giants are focusing instead on building fiber-optic cables made of glass that can carry far more data than docopper lines. As companies like Verizon Communications spendbillions to replace their century-old systems with these new lines,they're gradually disconnecting the old copper networks.

But smaller competitors say the disappearance of traditionalcopper could put them out of business.

Upstarts like XO Communications and Covad Communications rely ontheir ability to lease access to copper lines from Verizon or AT&Tso they can …