MCI expanded long distance communications over microwaves just to dodge the AT&T monopoly. They ended up breaking up the telco monopoly and creating a competitive long distance industry.
The sad part of the story is that it had to move it's HQ to Washington DC because its business was essentially lobbying and lawsuits for half a century, and that AT&T reacquired most of its regional components after its breakup.
More at Tim Wu's excellent "The Master Switch," naturally.
Another example of using loopholes to open up a market comes from Europe: In Sweden we used to have only 2 channels government public broadcasting. Commercial television was thought of as something evil that will corrupt the innocent minds of the population. The loophole used by the first commercial broadcaster was satellite - they headquartered themselves and broadcast from the UK to a satellite and then sold satellite subscriptions in Sweden. Eventually the government relented to the popularity of commercial TV and the first terrestrial commercial station started broadcasting in 1991.
The sad part of the story is that it had to move it's HQ to Washington DC because its business was essentially lobbying and lawsuits for half a century, and that AT&T reacquired most of its regional components after its breakup.
More at Tim Wu's excellent "The Master Switch," naturally.