Comments on: AT&T to buy BellSouth for $67 billion

The combined company would generate about $130 billion in sales and serve nearly 70 million local phone customers.

[cardinalbird2]

Here we go again

Twenty-five years ago the popular political mantra was "deregulation." Ma Bell and the Baby Bells were broken up and the rest is history. All along, Washington worked aggressively to give every advantage to large corporations so they could recreate much of what deregulation achieved. Does any sane person believe that the merger of Exxon and Mobile corps. was necessary for their continued existence? Are we not paying for it now with ridiculous gas and diesel prices fueling inflation? Everytime large corporations merge, thousands of people lose jobs that feed their families, pay taxes, and contribute to the well-being of our society. Unnecessary mergers erode society like outsourcing does - something that started about the same time as deregulation. Unfortunately it seems as though it's going to take more people falling on hard economic times for them to understand that the erosion of the middle class is ruining America as we know it.

[heystoopid]

AHH the no bell prize

So finally, the seven little bells have reformed, and ma ba bell is back with a vengance!

So jnr, has finally said to the world that the Sherman Act is dead, as far as GOP is concerned Monopolies are the rule rather than the exception, by allowing this deal to go ahead!

Now, the only thing missing is the the reformation of "Standard Oil" from the remaining sisters!

Oh well, with this merger, the end users, will pay the price seven times over, in additional fees and charges, and after that comes the interest and the merchandisers of the mergers hidden fees and charges, for alas someone has to pay, and the customer is the easiest one to bilk!

Whilst VOIP, may be a temporary refuge, the new Ma Bell, will find ways and means to add additional fees and charges on all internet users on top of existing access fees, whilst zeroing customer service at the same time!

The only loser in this deal will be the customer as always!

[doug b]

Unfair Comments

I have worked at Bellsouth for the past seven years and its been a
great job. As far as the merger goes it can only be good from my
stand point. The 10,000 person force reduction could be me, or
more likely the retirement age folks who just can't take a hint and
retire, or the management people who have a staff job and really
don't manage anything. Now about the customer service getting
worse, that'll never come from me or any of the other guys that I
work with. If a customer has a problem we do whats within our
power to make it right. Merger or not it'll still be the same job.

[commorancy]

Just a matter of time before

After Bellsouth concludes, Verizon and the new at&t will combine to create the old AT&T. Then, all they have to do is pick up all the rest of the RBOCs and a couple of CLECS and they're all set.

It's very clear that all of the divested companies were very resentful of the breakup... so now they're undoing all of that. Worse, the government is turning a blind eye thanks to W's pro big business administration.

Just wait, Verizon and at&t will merge to complete the reintegration.

[dbthree]

This Still Isn't the AT&T of 1983

What made AT&T so valuable and so strong was what it did behind the scenes with its Bell Laboratories. With Bell Labs all but dead inside a floundering Lucent Technologies, no matter how many times Ed Whitacre decides to purchase RBOCs (baby bells), it won't be the AT&T of the past.

The bottom line is, NONE of these comments about how consumer choice will be harmed have absolutely no validity in the fact that a.) these two companies already share a wireless provider... wireless prices would not change, b.) Regional operators are government-regulated monopolies; YOU HAVE NO CHOICE FOR LOCAL SERVICE AS-IS, especially with DSL which is really what this is about.

As someone who pays way too much for cable TV so I can get that high quality video and that high speed internet, I cannot wait for the new AT&T to bring IPTV to my home so I can stop paying $130 for something not worth even half of that.

Not to mention, the government requires that telephone service have a 100% uptime. Cable can't guarantee that. :D