31.   Initially, the company will will have to lease at least part of its lines from the state monopoly before its own network is ready.

32.   It is also the latest in a wave of state asset sales worldwide as governments move to unload former state monopolies and open up markets to competition.

33.   Next year, it will begin dismantling the state monopoly in fixed-line service by selling controlling stakes in Telebras regional subsidiaries.

34.   Not only are phone lines scarce in under-developed nations, but the prevailing systems have been run by state monopolies for decades and are often unreliable.

35.   Officially, Russia has a state monopoly over the caviar trade on its part of the Caspian and prohibits private fishing of sturgeon.

36.   Of the seven countries in the world where oil production is treated as a state monopoly, Brazil is the only one that imports oil.

37.   Of the seven countries where oil production is treated as a state monopoly, Brazil is the only importer, buying almost half its oil abroad.

38.   Pemex is also said to be looking at proposals to contract out pipeline maintenance to private companies as the state monopoly is simply unable to handle the job.

39.   Propelled by the Internet and deregulation, entrepreneurs and old state monopolies alike are betting that new communications pipes can be filled almost as quickly as they are built.

40.   Robert Frank of Cornell argues that the state monopoly itself is a mistake because it links government to the socially destructive impulse to try to get rich quick.