The press of telecommunication technologies and their progeny have undermined the natural monopoly basis for long distance telecommunications and customer premise products, forced open regulatory doors, toppled barriers to market entry, and led to the reshaping of regulatory philosophy as regulators have seen new, wider horizons for the industry. The prevailing regulatory stance was to foster competition wherever possible and to restrain the traditional carriers, particularly the Bell System. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has challenged this basic premise in formulating a proposal to eliminate regulation of profits and shift to regulation of prices, suggesting price caps as the most promising mechanism. This affirms the marketplace as the prime regulator, even of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. This new regulatory thrust, as described in the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, recognizes that quantitative and qualitative changes have taken place in the marketplace that require like changes in regulatory policy. (RP)