Letter to the Editor:

Editor -- David Lazarus' assertion that the telecommunications industry is headed toward a duopoly ("Telecom merger concerns," Lazarus at Large, Feb. 16) is wrong.

Besides landlines and cable, the communications industry generates competition from wireless, satellite and soon broadband over power lines. Lazarus should stop recycling distorted data from special interests posing as consumer groups.

Government price controls and property-sharing regulations almost killed the telecommunications sector. It's now time to let true market competition bring innovation and better prices to consumers.

SONIA ARRISON

Director of Technology Studies
Pacific Research Institute
San Francisco