Bill promotes greater competition - The Times-Gazette - Hillsboro, OH

Not so long ago, if you wanted to talk to a friend or relative, you had to walk over to your rotary telephone, spin the number dial and wait for an answer. If you were out of the house and needed to make a call, you had to find a quarter and locate the closest pay phone.

In 2010, thanks to incredible advances in technology over the past decade, the pay phone, and for a growing number of Ohioans, the traditional home phone have been replaced by cable phone service, Internet communications and mobile phones that can do everything from search the Internet to take pictures to play videos. From 2001 to 2009, local telephone companies lost 3 million lines, while the number of wireless phone customers in Ohio grew by nearly 4.5 million, according to a recent report from the Ohio Telecom Association...