Return of the Big Bell: AT&T and BellSouth merger gets FCC ok
Ars technica has this coverage of the FCC approval of the Bellsouth and AT&T merger. I covered this before as AT&T to acquire BellSouth! Return of the Bell System?. So after about nine (9) months of waiting…
The deal is done. Yesterday afternoon, the FCC voted to approve the massive AT&T/BellSouth merger. The vote came only after AT&T offered a range of additional conditions meant to satisfy the Democratic commissioners. But just because the vote was unanimous, don’t assume that the commissioners were all thrilled with the outcome.
Here is the current picture:
- SBC-AT&T = SBC+BellSouth (Wireline Voice), AT&T (Long Distance Voice), AT&T (Internet), Cingular (Mobile), SBC-Yahoo (TV)
- Verizon = Verizon (Wireline Voice), MCI (Long Distance Voice), MCI+UUNET (Internet), Verizon (Mobile)
With Sprint+Nextel, that makes three (3) major players in the market today. Of course, the original Big Bell (AT&T) did not have major Cellular Mobile Telecommunications Services (CMTS) yet. So, this up and coming “new” Big Bell is actually bigger and potentially badder? The return of the Big Bell.
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:52 am
Looks the Cingular brand will go away. Apparently, things have gone full circle here too. Cingular is formed by Bellsouth and SBC. It then merges with AT&T Wireless but keeps the Cingular brand. Then now, AT&T, SBC and Bellsouth merge and agrees to rebrand Cingular to AT&T again.