RSSFCC to Approve AT&T-BellSouth Merger
By Nate Mook | Published September 22, 2006, 11:57 AM
The Federal Communications Commission is slated to approve the $67 billion purchase of BellSouth by telecom giant AT&T, formerly known as SBC. Shareholders approved the merger in July and expected government regulators to demand the combined company shed some assets.
According to a memo distributed late Thursday, however, the FCC is set to give the green light to the deal without any conditions, press reports indicated. The official vote will take place on October 12. The U.S. Department of Justice has yet to give its blessing, due to the agency being sidetracked by court challenges of the mega-mergers between SBC and AT&T, as well as Verizon and MCI.
It's nice to see our law's against monopoly is working out well under the bush administration.
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|Colin Powell's son was given the reins early in the first Bush administration over the FCC. His hallmark achievement there was to deregulate the telecommunications industry. The downside is that monopolies are being created and choice and competition is being limited in all areas of communication. My question is whether anyone notices that the news is all the same on all the major networks, in the papers, and on the web unless you have a small independent reporting on relevant issues. Another question that troubles me is whether that was the plan all along so the propaganda machine can run more smoothly.
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|"Another question that troubles me is whether that was the plan all along so the propaganda machine can run more smoothly."
Yep, the laziness and bias of the media is the fault of the FCC.
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|Funny thing is that everyone seems to think it is biased against their own views...and while everyone is arguing over that, no one is noticing the lack of reporting.
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|I will never understand what antitrust regulators are doing or thinking. What is the point of this merger other then to eliminate competition? SBC just bought AT&T, now they are buying another huge telecom? And it was approved? I am convinced verizon could buy this newly merged company and that would also be approved. You know now, qwest is going to be bought next. Either by this company or Verizon. \
Then there was two, competition will cease to exist now. This does nothing but pressure other big companies to buy buy buy.
AT&T was initially broken up and for a good reason into a lot of separate smaller companies. A few grew and a bunch perished. Now the monsters are all joining back up. Where does it end and what was the point of the initial break up? Why was microsoft not broken up?
The payoffs must be big and the lobbyists are doing their job!
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|It's amazing how people are so hung up on name brands. ATT was bought out by SBC, not the other way around. The former ATT, (again, which was bought by SBC), was a mere shadow of its former self - pretty much a non-player in modern telecom. But people being as they are, think of ATT as a well-known and world-recognized name brand that had been around for about hundred years, so the name was retained for the new merged company for that reason alone. The new ATT is still nothing compared to the old ATT - the marketplace is severely competitive these days, and less profitable, especially when compared to 25 years ago. The employees, the managers, the Board members, many of the buildings... just about everything from the old ATT, pre-1982, are all gone. Finally, technology is lightyears beyond those days as well, and the pace of change is far more rapid. So it's called ATT - big deal - it's not the same damned company.
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|I think you need to take a rain check on your knowledge of the telecom industry and AT&T in particular. I have worked in several AT&T buildings, i do right now as a matter of fact that has been operated for over 50 years. The others at least have been around for 40 years. so yeah, while a lot of the former buildings are gone. Not all of them are. Especially the ones related to government services and technology. This includes microwave towers, sats and Point of present areas.
So double check that info you think you know so much about.
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|Okay, I'll go edit my post and take out "all" in reference to "buildings". So is the rest of my post valid, or are you now going to find someone with a 40-year career at ATT to piss on the rest of it?
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|I am so glad now that I am no longer a land line user!
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|FYI - with this purchase AT&T will now own 100% of Cingular. So it doesn't matter if your a land line user. Everything is merging together again. I would expect Cingular to change its name back to AT&T within a year or two.
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|I use t-mobile!
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|Which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, the largest telecom company in the EU, and is a now-privatized, former government-owned monopoly, based in Germany.
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|Still is a better company than Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, or Cingular. I have less dropped calls than anyone else that I know, cheaper prices, and great customer service.
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|Your right about Cingular chaging their name to ATT but expect it happen in the first part of 2007 after the holiday retail season ends.
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