Deregulation of monopolies tends to almost always make consumers better off. Indiana’s broad and effective telecommunications reform of 2006 is a classic example of this.

The merged Hancock Telecom and Central Indiana Power have become NineStar Connect.

Customers waiting outside the Verizon Wireless store in Castleton early Thursday wanted two things: iPhones and warmth.

The FBI is asking land-line phone customers across the country to check their bills for phantom charges from more than 20 companies controlled by or connected to embattled financier Tim Durham.

Consolidation of Central Indiana Power and Hancock Telecom will become official on Jan. 1. It took a change in state law to allow the merger to proceed.

The center, operated by Indianapolis-based TeleServices Direct, is set to close Dec. 4. The company attributed the closing to a loss of business.

Albert Chen, founder of Telamon Corp., revels in a messy desk, espouses the benefits of humility, and admires Warren Buffett.

An Anderson firm that provides a “one number” service that rings all of a client’s phones has filed suit against Web giant Google, alleging Google Voice infringes on two of its patents.

Every neighborhood has its battles, but the 1,017-resident Centennial subdivision in Westfield is embroiled in one of the most unusual: a very public fight over the adequacy of its phone, Internet and video service.

Carmel-based Telamon Corp. rose to become one of the largest minority-owned businesses in the area largely by serving telecommunications giants. Now it is veering off its traditional course to supply racing teams with an ethanol-based fuel made from Indiana corn.

A municipality has filed the first formal complaint against a cable television operator since state telecommunications reform three years ago unplugged local government oversight of operators.

A trade group for the state's telephone companies is wringing its hands over budding efforts of electric companies to offer so-called smart grids to better monitor and manage electric distribution.

The fiercely competitive local telecommunications landscape should get even more heated, following Cincinnati Bell Inc.'s $18 million acquisition of Carmel-based eGix Inc. eGix provides bundled voice and data services, as well as high-speed Internet access and messaging products, to about 17,000 commercial customers.

Some in the telecom industry think AT&T had the Indiana General Assembly twirled around its finger like a coil of phone cord last year. It lobbied legislators to rewrite the state's telecommunications laws so it could more easily deploy its "U-verse" video product.

The state's 30-or-so independent payphone operators--a conveyance nearly made extinct by wireless phones--may begin receiving refunds next month from AT&T Indiana and Verizon for excess charges the phone companies billed independent payphone operators for dial tones from 1997 to 2004.