Almost everyone in America knows how to use a telephone and almost everyone picks up a phone every day to make or answer a call. Unfortunately, almost no one understands their telephone bill. Worse: almost no one knows that they have been paying, for years, for services that they never ordered and that will probably never be delivered anytime soon.

And we believe you're owed money - hundreds of dollars per-line.

The Information Superhighway was supposed to be America's shining, high-technology future. With millions of miles of super-special glass wires, known as fiber-optics, attached to ultra-modern, all digital telephone network switches, every home in America would be connected to a dazzling array of new products and services - 500 channels of movies, shopping, and games, all coming soon to the TV.

And, of course, there was supposed to be Tele-Learning, Tele-Medicine, Tele-Anything; things so wonderous that even science fiction couldn't predict them.

The primary finding of this tale is that instead of building this wonderous highway, the Baby Bells, the progeny of AT&T in the form of seven, very large holding companies that were created in 1984, most likely pocketed the money. We estimate that it comes to about $30 billion dollars to date (1991-1997) and another $7.5 billion in 1998. And they left America with POTS: Plain Old Telephone Service.

And that $30 billion dollars is really billions of extra pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters that you, your company, your family, friends, cousins, relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances are paying through overcharges on their telephone bills. You paid for and did not receive the new fiber-optic future.

This largesse is based on a fact: in exchange for the removal of state regulations that controlled profits, known as "deregulation", the Bells promised to build the fiber-optic Info Highway. By 1998 there was supposed to be almost 27 million Info Highway fiber-optic homes. Almost half of America, 45 million, would be wired by the year 2000. Today virtually none exist. Also, large consulting firms, including Deloitte & Touche, charged millions of dollars for studies to corroborate the Bells' story.

In a complaint filed with the New Jersey Public Service Commission by the New Jersey Public Advocate, March, 1997, the fiber-optic future is definitely being paid for, but not delivered. In April 97, the Advocate told The New York Times. (1)

"...low-income and residential customers have paid for the fiber-optic wire lines every month but had not yet benefited. "

What's worse, Info-Scandal overcharging for the I-Way is only part of a long tale of abuse, which started right at their birth in 1984. It adds an additional $85-$100 billion of questionable overcharges by the Bells, bringing the total to about $14.5 billion annually. In fact, we believe you're owed a lot of money, about $500-$1,500 per line, but without proper audits it's hard to be exact.

What's $14 billion a year between friends, right? And we need to stress one point: most of the money in question is not from the long distance companies, such as AT&T, MCI and Sprint, but from the local phone companies affectionately called the Baby Bells. They are arguably the fattest babies in history.