FCC OK's buyout of BellSouth by AT&T

Well, it happened before the year end.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2006/12/29/1229bizbell.html

Now it's reclaiming all the baby Bells. Corporatism run amok.

AT&T was purchased by one of the baby bells, not the way you described it.

Still corporatism run amok.

n/t

SBC bought AT&T and kept the name AT&T and now the new SBC bought AT&T is buying BellSouth. BellSouth is not buying AT&T.

n/t

with AT&T restricted to offering only Long Distance service. If AT&T acquires Verizon the break up of Ma Bell will be undone completely especially since Verizon owns MCI which was the company that forced the break up and deregulation.

We will end up with an unregulated monopoly when we had a regulated monopoly with the original Ma Bell. This is not a good thing.

but no one seems concerned that the cable companies are not regulated at all. There are plenty of regulations in place for the phone companies, at all levels of governments -- local, state, and federal.

A regulated monopoly like the former Bell System was one that while granted a de facto monopoly had to play by rules to provide universal service, standards of equipment and signaling fair pricing that shifted some profits from high profit parts of the business like long distance subsidizing local, business subsidizing residential and urban subsidizing rural.

That's all out of the window now. There is very little regulation; federal, state or local on the phone companies. The company I work for used to be scared stiff of the Texas Public Utilities Commission but now seem not to care and what is the FCC.

You did bring up a good point. Cable needs some regulatory oversight as does cellular. But I don't see either happening anytime soon. What we have seen in telephony, banking, transportation and commerce is a near complete roll back of the FDR era.

I can see some advantages to the breakup of Bell but I defy anyone to prove to me that it has saved money. It is impossible to compare not apples to oranges but apples to aardvarks.

Cable companies are quite heavily regulated at the federal and local level and, increasingly, at the state level.

Cable companies and even fiber optic companies get away with crap all the time. For example, they let them throw coax cable on top of the ground without any burial, and then they will not take the responsibility of its damage when it's cut or run over. They'll get the subscriber to pay for it instead. There is very little regulation of the industry right now, residential and commercial.

I've filed complaints to FCC for numerous violations by some cabling companies, I've worked in telecom industry myself as an installer, so I know a little of what I'm describing. The FCC just doesn't care anymore. They'll tell you to take it somewhere else, like your local county zoning honchos. You might get lucky if the locals happen to have a grudge against a particular company, but generally you're out of luck getting enforcements from FCC these days.

Every cable company operates pursuant to a local franchise regulation. Most of those franchises contain specific rules about the location of cable. If the local government isn't enforcing the franchise, its because they choose not to regulate, not because they can't.

Cable regulation historically has been divided between the federal and local level. If you're complaining to the FCC about matters that are -- and always have been -- within the jurisdiction of the local or state governments, of course you're not going to get anywhere.

I've done regulatory work in the telcom industry for 25 years, so I know a little about what I'm talking about too.

after I submitted documentation (photos, dates & times, places) of one one blantant example of shoddy, sub-standard work by one particular cabling telecom company where I previously worked (management didn't care about the on-going problem, which was the shallow burial of trunk lines, essential exposed directly on the ground). I don't know if they were fined by FCC, perhaps they were, but OTOH they may have had other reasons to fire me so quickly after filing the complaint (I was also organizing for CWA at the time).

Subsequent complaints of cabling/telecom issues over other problems with adequate documentation supplied, these where totally ignored by FCC. Also, I think there are less FCC field offices in Florida (where I work) then there were, say 20 years ago.

As I see it, in the long run, without more strict FCC regulation of telecom cabling industry, the consumer will be the loser. Because of substandard work by companies that want to cut too many corners to make a profit.

On top of that, the current franchise system that cable companies operate under does not allow for competition for their services, with the exception of dish service.

While most communities have not granted second franchises for wired multichannel service, its not becuase the current franchise system "does not allow" it. It generally is because second entrants have not stepped up to seek a competing franchise, particularly since they would be the third or fourth competitor seeking customers (after the incumbent cable operator and two satellite companies). This is beginning to change however, now that Verizon and BellSouth have decided to enter the video market. They have been seeking and receiving franchises at a good clip, and the FCC just adopted new rules that will make it even easier for the phone companies to get franchises to provide cable television service. (Personally, I think the new FCC rules are outrageous since they give advantages to the big phone companies over not only the incumbent cable operators, but smaller, independent telecom companies that would like to get into the market and provide competing voice and video service).

But it's more like the scene from Terminator II, where the liquid metal Terminator is frozen by liquid nitrogen, Arnie then shoots him and he breaks into thousands of frozen metal pieces... but the pieces start melting and forming larger pools... Arnie says "We don't have much time".

It doesn't matter which Baby Bell bought what... the point is all of the shards are running together to form a new, horrible creature. Who do you think is behind this "must get rid of net neutrality" thing? The courts can SAY that the technical landscape is now so different because cable companies and wireless internet and blah blah... but the number of companies you can buy phone service, internet service, and TV service from is still rather limited. And the number that offer all three for any given geographic market is VERY limited.

Bellsouth services are overpriced but I've been using them at home because all the telecommunications services are overpriced and there is little in the way of choice. When I start getting bills from ATT, I'm cutting the landline.

I consider the costs of telecom services so outrageous, it actually discourages me from opening an office, which is something I really need to do.

I know of several people who have several Vonage lines in their businesses and no local telco service. They get Vonage over their cable broadband.

i'll keep it in mind.

Trust me.

we don't care about no stinking monopolies!

that this will result in layoffs over the 10,000 marker. Not good.

of America. All things are for the benefit of our Corporate Masters. Damn labor, hail corporate executives. Makes ya proud to be an American, aye? :(

AT&T's long distance bills used to be outrageous and local was very expensive too. Now you can get cheaper packages, ridiculously low (and sometimes unlimited) long-distance service and cheap high-speed internet. Home phones are cheaper than wireless plans. DSL started at $50 and now is less than $20/mo. AOL is $25 a month. Even the cable companies have had to drop their prices for high-speed internet. There is fierce competition between AT&T, Verizon, wireless companies and the cable providers.

The real ripoff these days is cable TV. I can't believe we pay about $100 per month for basic cable, DVR, a few movie channels and HDTV. I'm hoping IPTV brings the same price drops as we've seen in phone service and internet access.

That said, any further consolidation of the industry should not be allowed. No more cable mergers. No satellite mergers. No AT&T/Verizon deal. We now have oligopoly and any additional consolidation would likely stifle competition. I'm still on the fence with Bellsouth. 10K employees let go sucks, but there are still over a million employees in the industry.

Guess which one is the even bigger rip-off?

I didn't want all of BellSouth's bells and whistles - caller ID, forwarding, etc., etc., and as a result got stuck with an .18 for long distance calls across the board - regardless of what day or time they were made (I switched to Bell South long distance at a time when it was less expensive than the crappy deal AT & T was giving me; a year later, they changed the terms).

I have DSL internet through a local operation so need to keep the land-line. I have the bare minimum, and get my long distance from Working Assets (strongly recommended). Bell South can kiss my ass.

business practices. Swore I'd never do business with them in any fashion ever again. Now I'll be stuck with them for at least 2 years. Sigh!