AT&T

[Mjcpr]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,186853,00.html

Next, they're going to aquire BellSouth. That would leave Quest and Verizon as the only remaining phone companies that were spun off when the Federal Gov't forced AT&T to break up.....the rest will be part of AT&T.

In other news, my cell service will have gone from AT&T to Cingular to AT&T.

[mrowl]

they can't make up their frickin minds

Southwestern Bell --> SBC --> AT&T

I predict they will be GTE next...

[Skysooner]

I wouldn't be surprised to see this one taken down by anti-monopoly laws on the books.

[OklahomaTuba]

No, I seriously doubt it could happen again with the telecom de-regulation and rise of technology like cell, voip, internet, networks, etc.

This is probably the only way these companies are going to survive the next 10-20 years.

[Rhino]

If I have to do anything with my cell phone service in the next five years again, I'm going to burn down a KFC.

[slickdawg]

20 years ago, "ma bell" was busted up. Now, she's getting reorganized.

Kinda like the liquid machine in Terminator 2 - after being shattered, all the pieces are molding back together.

[slickdawg]

And the only people who made $ were the lawyers and lobbyists.

Ah yes, lobbyists - legally buying politicians in America.

[Frozen Sooner]

I wouldn't be surprised to see this one taken down by anti-monopoly laws on the books.

Nope. AT&T originally broke up because they were already in one regulated industry and they wanted to get into another one-computers. Under Sherman, you can't do that.

Computers are no longer a regulated industry, so no problems.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

it just makes qwest's purchase look even more ignorant.

[Skysooner]

Nope. AT&T originally broke up because they were already in one regulated industry and they wanted to get into another one-computers. Under Sherman, you can't do that.

Computers are no longer a regulated industry, so no problems.

You are probably right, but there are other parts of Sherman that might come into play. I work in a deregulated industry that has been consolidating for some time now. There have been some large mergers lately, and in some cases, the companies have been forced to sale certain properties they acquire because it would give them too much of the local market and infrastructure. It doesn't mean the whole thing is shut down, but there are consequences. This may or may not be the issue here. I am not a telecommunications expert (my areas of expertise are regulated utilities, oil and gas pipelines and exploration/production companies).