ma bell coming back!

[Pantoot]

Ma Bell was broken up because having the country's telecom network controlled by one company was a threat to national security. Now that there are several other means to communicate the threat of one company shutting down (or having its network shut down) has relaxed.

Economics had little to do with it, the govt didn't want all their eggs in one basket.

 

[GoPackGo]

Originally posted by: BunLengthHotDog
Cingular is jointly owned between Bellsouth and SBC (now AT&T). The ownership is 60 (SBC/AT&T) / 40 (Bellsouth). Managerial decisions are divided 50/50.
Cingular will remain, they are just dropping the name in favor of AT&T (name recognition etc).

Being an employee of Bellsouth (err AT&T) is gonna be very interesting in the next few months, I work in the operations segment of the Internet Side (Bellsouth Dot Net), as an admin for VPN and Big Biz accounts (networking etc). We have been assured our jobs are safe for the immediate future, but only time will tell.

Bellsouth employee today, AT&T by Friday?

The immediate future is only as long as it takes to haul you away.

 

[ElFenix]

back when the breakup happened there was essentially only one way to communicate in and out of your house--the phone line. and the break up didn't kill the local phone monopoly. no, the breakup only allowed competition in long distance services, because monopolies on last mile wiring makes sense. (texas' deregulated energy market works the same, generation is competitive, while the last mile is still owned by a regulated monopoly).

now cable and wireless are viable competitive measures. even the power line could be a viable competitor. so now there are 3, maybe 4 or 5 last mile methods (and even more companies because wireless is super cheap for last mile). that is FAR more competition than there ever was before, even right after the break up. even if humpty dumpty were back together again it would be facing competition.

 

[senseamp]

With VOIP and wireless, phone companies aren't the only game in town anymore for phone calls.
Besides, their copper is oftentimes aging and not well suited for high bandwidth applications, unlike cable companies and fiberoptic broadband.
So AT&T now would not have a lock on the market like it did when it was broken up.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: jhu
looks like she's coming back. so what was the point in breaking them up again?

Because at the time it was a monopoly, but if it were reunited again today, it wouldn't be (there is strong competition from cable/internet companies).

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: Balt

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Slew Foot
As a stockholder, I say, good!

Are you an AT&T stockholder?

What's an even bigger deal is the demise of the Cingular Brand.

Didn't Bellsouth/Cingular buy out AT&T's cellular division? And now I guess AT&T is buying it back when they get Bellsouth?

Well, actually AT&T is the old SBC, which bought AT&T and kept the name. So in essense, its a different company buying the cellular company that originally sold it.

 

[BunLengthHotDog]

Well, looks like its been postponed, the 2 Dems on the FCC want to open the proceedings to public comment, and are steadfast about adding conditions to the deal.
It may not reconvene on the subject again until its next scheduled meeting Nov 9.

At least I will have a paycheck until then.