Telmex is still the dominant fixed-line phone carrier in Mexico, two decades after Slim took it private.
FORBES: Carlos Slim's Telmex May Be Heading Into Pay TV Competition
Movies have also become the latest weapon in the battle between cable companies and fixed-line phone companies.
How do cellular stocks compare with fixed-line phone company stocks in Asia?
Fixed-line phone companies are trying to emulate this sort of deal.
Furthermore, a VOIP user can keep his old fixed-line phone number, which will work not only at home but anywhere in the world where he chooses to use the device (as long as a broadband connection is available).
Ostergaard demonstrated how a user can dial a telephone number from the keypad of a Palm and connect a cordless headset to a regular fixed-line desk phone.
So Dhanin is shaking up his empire, focusing on core operations: agri-business, retail and TelecomAsia, which operates fixed-line and mobile phone networks.
The FCC regulations also place tougher restrictions on fixed-line services from cable and phone companies than on wireless carriers, which have more limited bandwidth.
Calltrunk can record and store conversations made via any phone - fixed line or mobile - and has currently amassed more than 20, 000 customers worldwide after just over a year of operation.
In its last results, Virgin said it had three million users of its television services, 3.4 million broadband customers, 4.5 million subscribers to its mobile phone service and 4.1 million fixed-line telephone customers.
Many mobile-phone companies have much higher market valuations than fixed-line operators, despite their more recent origins.
ECONOMIST: A Survey of Telecommunications: The world in your pocket | The
That said, as fixed-line voice telephony becomes a low-growth commodity, it is Sprint's mobile-phone arm and its 4m subscribers that must seem irresistible to Mr Ebbers, especially in the wake of last week's deal to unite the American wireless assets of Vodafone AirTouch with Bell Atlantic's mobile business.
应用推荐