Those who do not understand history are condemned to repeat it. The current discussion of cross-subsidies by the RBOCs threatens to reiterate all of the confusions of pre-divestiture discussions of AT&T's presumed cross subsidies. More careful analysis of current conditions reveals that the RBOC's competitive activities are
not being cross subsidized out of the local rate base. If they are being subsidized, the subsidies come from the IX carriers.