A few weeks ago a report surfaced that suggested that Verizon would be overbuilding in AT&T territory, in essence bringing FiOS in to compete with U-Verse in some select Texas territories. Light Reading notes that Verizon isn't overbuilding, they're actively laying new plant. Verizon is showing interest in taking FiOS outside of where they've traditionally offered copper-based services. Seeing Verizon and AT&T (or Qwest) do battle would certainly be appealing to consumers, given it would add a competitive dimension to an otherwise fairly stale duopoly system.There's a lot of interesting "what ifs" here. AT&T and Verizon have traditionally been bosom buddies on the regulatory front, so will they ensure that neither really impacts the others' territory? Should Qwest be worried? Does AT&T's distance-limited VDSL technology put them at a disadvantage should they want to return fire and deploy into Verizon territory? Would aggression by Verizon force AT&T to finally embrace FTTH?

I'd guess that this kind of baby bell cross-competition will be rare, as Verizon's first priority will be deploying FiOS to its most profitable existing markets. Though the the slower AT&T U-Verse and Qwest ADSL2+ products could prove a tasty target should Verizon want to play FiOS hardball.