said by TKJunkMail :

This is nothing but an unsubstantiated number made up by Cringley. It bolsters his argument, but he shows no proof whatsoever.

Over the decade from 1994-2004 the major telephone companies profited from higher phone rates paid by all of us, accelerated depreciation on their networks, and direct tax credits an average of $2,000 per subscriber for which the companies delivered precisely nothing in terms of service to customers. That's $200 billion with nothing to be shown for it.