BellSouth

South Central Bell

Suffering Belle

Cingular

It's indeed complicated, and when I get in the mountains, Judge
Weinstein's momentous decision affects the dead spots reaped by the
rugged competitions spawned by
T-Mobile, Sprint, Blah & Bleh.


Thus, I try not to keep-up too closely with it all, because it's hard
enough to learn to punch the little phones: I can't recall my
!@#$%^&*()_+ phone numbers.

And so:

www.ajc.com

copyrighted by the usual suspect 2006

Opponents make case to FCC on AT&T, BellSouth merger

By SCOTT LEITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 06/07/06

If history is any guide, AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth won't be
stopped.

But opponents are lobbying against it anyway - or at least asking the
Federal Communications Commission to place special conditions on the
pending deal.

The deadline for submitting comments about the AT&T/BellSouth combo
passed Monday, spurring critics of various stripes to offer remarks
against what would be a landmark deal.

For example, four groups - including Consumers Union, which publishes
Consumer Reports - submitted a filing to the FCC that argued the deal
would have "profoundly anticompetitive effects" on voice and Internet
service.

"Unless the merger is rejected outright or, at a minimum, dramatically
altered, consumers will witness the steady march of the
telecommunications industry back toward a de facto, deregulated
monopoly," the filing said.

The companies see it differently, and they'll be able to submit
responses to the FCC, if they want, by June 20. Already, the companies
have claimed their merger will be good for customers. The deal is
expected to close by the end of the year.

"We really feel we're on track," BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said
Tuesday. "We obviously were prepared there would be comments from those
who have their own narrow, special interests."

Though the FCC is just one of several governmental bodies that must
approve the deal, the agency is a critical player.

The FCC hasn't halted big telecommunications deals in the recent past,
including the giant mergers of AT&T/SBC Communications and Verizon/MCI.

Some of the groups that oppose the AT&T/BellSouth linkup fought
previous mergers to no avail. "They should block this merger," Mark
Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America,
said during a news conference Tuesday. "They probably should have
blocked this whole string of mergers."

The AT&T/BellSouth approval process, however, has a couple of new
wrinkles, thanks to the emergence of a pair of high-profile issues.

One is network neutrality, which revolves around whether Internet
service providers should be able to charge extra for faster delivery of
certain kinds of content. Many groups and companies are adamantly
opposed, including Google, saying a loss of neutral access will
threaten Internet freedom.

Separately, phone companies have been under the microscope since USA
Today reported in May that AT&T, Verizon Communications and BellSouth
cooperated with the National Security Agency on a spying program.
BellSouth has denied the paper's claims and asked for a retraction.

The American Civil Liberties Union previously asked the FCC to
investigate and, in a filing Monday, reiterated its request. "BellSouth
has publicly and emphatically denied participation in the NSA program,
while AT&T has refused to confirm or deny its participation," the
filing said. "If we take BellSouth's insistence at face value, then the
public interest is served by ensuring that BellSouth's customers
continue to have their privacy protected, unlike AT&T customers, whose
privacy appears to have been violated."

While activist groups have been among the prominent critics of the
proposed deal, Sprint Nextel also is concerned. The company, one of the
nation's biggest wireless providers, wants the FCC to impose conditions
to control the power of the new AT&T. Sprint Nextel's filing said the
company relies on AT&T and BellSouth to provide connections for a
sizable portion of Sprint's cellphone services.

AT&T and BellSouth also are co-owners of Cingular Wireless, which will
become wholly owned by AT&T

What PSC is requesting

The Georgia Public Service Commission filed a statement as well, asking
that AT&T be required to offer stand-alone digital subscriber line
service in BellSouth's nine-state territory. According to the filing,
BellSouth doesn't offer this service, which means a customer who wants
BellSouth Internet service also must also subscribe to phone service.

A small Atlanta-based telecom company, Cbeyond Communications, also was
involved in a filing that criticized the merger.

"One can only wonder when the commission will say that enough is enough
and stop the incessant effort of AT&T to re-establish a nationwide
wireline monopoly," said the filing, which was supported by several
companies. The FCC is expected to issue an order on the AT&T/BellSouth
matter sometime this fall. In addition to regulatory approvals, the
companies must get sign-offs from shareholders. Separate, special
meetings are scheduled for July 21 in BellSouth's hometown of Atlanta
and in San Antonio, where AT&T is based.

When announced, AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth was valued at $67
billion.

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TOliver wrote:
"Robert Cohen" wrote...
Well, I also forgot Southern Bell: AT & T has reportedly absorbed 'em.


No, Robert.....

"AT&T" is the name recently adopted by "SBC", the old "Southwestern Bell"
once one of AT&T's affiliates, once HQed in St. Louie, now San Antonio, and
oiperator of "home phone service across the Southwest and in parts of
California and other chunks of the US. SBC acquired the remaining parts of
AT&T, principally the LD network and the wireless network. SBC already
owned a big chunk of awireless network, Cingular, into which AT&T wireless
was folded, and SBC, figuring that the old AT&T name had some mileage
remaining, switched....

I think Southern Bell still remains as it was, another of the old Bell
regionals on its own (but doesn't it also own part of Cingular?)


mrtravel wrote:
Robert Cohen wrote:

Yeah, I know what ya mean, because our little country town is Delta,
GM, Ford, Home Depot, Ga Pacific,

How in the world did you forget Coke