I think George Gilder would tell you that it is the FCC, and possibly our antitrust enforcement, which has resulted in the situation where high-speed Internet is more common in South Korea than it is in the US.If you think about it, the use of cell phones and VOIP should obsolete POTS almost completely, and VOIP should supplement cellular by making it possible to have small cells wherever there is an wireless internet router. And long distance voice should be cost no more than local, nor should international cost a lot.
It's already there. Vonage supplies a free softphone which installs on any Windows system (laptop or desktop). Once you've connected to an IP network (whether via 802.11 or conventional Ethernet or whatever), your laptop/desktop becomes a VOiP telephone with your own conventional telephone number, and you can initiate and receive conventional phone calls over VOiP.
Bottom line is that you can carry your local (say, Des Moines) telephone number wherever you go, whether it's New York or Singapore or Moscow. Wherever there's IP, your "local" number will work.
Which means your call from Singapore to Des Moine remains a "local" call, and your friends/customers can call you in Singapore from Des Moines at local Des Moines rates.