41.   Seidenberg and other Verizon executives have advocated ending the practice of encouraging smaller competitors to lease lines on its local telephone networks and then resell them to consumers.

42.   Smaller competitors also promise to give the giants a good fight.

43.   Smaller competitors including Excel Communications Inc. also are entering the fray with cheaper prices.

44.   Smaller competitors also are working on voice recognition systems.

45.   Smaller competitors of the merged company also have their concerns about the creation of financial supermarkets.

46.   Shoppers were attracted to smaller regional competitors benefiting from stepped-up marketing and capital spending.

47.   Smaller competitors like Excel Communications Inc. also are entering the fray with cheaper prices.

48.   Smaller competitors, like Excel Communications Inc., also are entering the fray with cheaper prices.

49.   Some smaller competitors already feel crowded out by the expansion of Iron Mountain and Recall.

50.   Such weaknesses have enabled rivals like Unilever to grow more aggressively globally and smaller competitors like Clorox Co. to respond faster to new product trends.