IP

Anyway you look at it, AT&T's CEO Dave Dorman will make out like a bandit after the proposed merger between AT&T and SBC Communications is finalized. On Friday, AT&T and SBC filed their proxy statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing details of Dorman's contract with the company.

When the $16 billion merger was announced in January, SBC and AT&T said Dorman would stay on as president of the newly combined company. But if he doesn't become CEO after SBC's current CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. retires, which … Read more

Negotiations between Qwest and MCI are getting down to the wire, as a March 17th deadline looms.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Qwest is expected to raise its bid to buy MCI. It's not known yet how much Qwest will sweeten the deal, but it's expected to increase the cash portion of the offer, according to the article.

Qwest, which revised its initial bid, has already offered $8 billion for MCI, more than $1 billion above the accepted bid from Verizon Communications. Since Qwest made public information about its intitial and revised offers, shareholders have … Read more

Our daily look at telecom news around the Web:

FCC slaps 'truth in billing' guidelines to cell phones--USA Today

Newest Bluetooth Gadget: Cows--Mobile Pipeline brings us the day's most entertaining headline.

EchoStar facing probe: Ergen, friend scrutinized--Denver Post

FCC opens more spectrum for WISPS: A big plus for rural broadband in America--Broadband Reports

Ultra-wideband proposal gets government green light--Mobile Pipeline (or eWeek)

VoIP parasites take heart: Converged services seen as key--Light Reading

Skype signs millionth paid VoIP user--Networking Pipeline

Aruba plots open source--Unstrung

Comment on one of these stories? A link … Read more

Five years after the drunken telecommunications spending craze ended, the industry is still cleaning up after the party. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to file civil charges against Joseph Nacchio, the former CEO of Qwest Communications, as early as next week.

It's little surprise that regulators would come after Nacchio, since it's no secret that he and several other Qwest executives have been under investigation for some time. The exact charges of the SEC case aren't yet known, but the SEC is expected to accuse Nacchio of falsely … Read more

Our daily look at telecom news around the Web--and what a busy day it is:

Broadband downloading to send DVDs to early grave--Vnunet.com

Chicago plans citywide hot spot--Chicago Tribune (free signup or a visit to BugMeNot required. Or check out Mobile Pipeline's take)

Skype CEO takes on telcos--eWeek

Samsung develops cell phone with hard-disk drive--Infoworld, or the PC World take.

Vonage being blocked--again--Information Week

Avoiding a VoIP security 'judgment day'--SearchSecurity.com

Norwegian TV airs live from mobile phone --Associated Press

Boeing launches in-flight Internet service--TechNewsWorld

Comment on one of these stories? … Read more

Verizon Communications and SBC Communications aren't the only telephone companies wooing high-end business customers. On Thursday the UK's largest telecom operator BT Group said it has won a $3 billion contract with Reuters Group.

The deal is BT??s biggest ever service contract, and it's part of a strategy to reduce the company's dependency on less lucrative local and long telephone service by providing fully managed and complex networks to multinational companies.

This is a similar strategy to the carriers in the United States. In fact, that is why SBC said it's buying AT&… Read more

The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, or Utopia, has begun construction to lace homes in 14 cities with fiber optic lines. Speeds will begin at a minimum of 100mbps downstream and upstream.

Paul Morris, Utopia's executive director, compared the infrastructure development to a municipally funded airport. Cities pay for the airport's construction, private airlines lease space and fly the planes. Utopia will raise funds through government bonds and hire private companies for all of the network's construction and maintenance.

The local Baby Bell, Qwest Communications International, had blocked Utopia from reaching Salt Lake City. Other local-phone giants … Read more

Bill Huang, chief technology officer at telecom equipment maker UT Starcom, said the cost of providing speedy fiber optic lines to consumers in Asia will dip to $100 per subscriber in two years. That's down from the current $200 per subscriber price point today.

Speaking at FastNet Futures, an offshoot of the Voice on the Net conference in San Jose, Calif., Huang attributed the 50 percent decline to the high volume of fiber demand and deployment in China and Japan. Huang knows from first-hand experience, since he supplies fiber equipment to Yahoo BB in Japan, the progeny of flamboyant … Read more

Our daily look at telecom news around the Web:

Can WiMax Hype Match Reality?--Mobile Pipeline

Carriers bringing TV to cell phones--TechNewsWorld

Will enterprises take to AOL's VoIP service?--eWeek

Yes, a light day for our usual roundup, but don't forget to check out our coverage of the VON Internet telephony conference in San Jose.

Comment on one of these stories? A link we missed that you want to post? We'll see you on the comments page ...