[jibi]

AT&T will be acquiring BellSouth. This means that all of you legacy AT&T Wireless customers who became Cingular Blue customers, and you Cingular customers who became Cingular Orange customers will now all become AT&T customers and the Cingular name will be phased out (how's that for a run-on sentence).

So now we're essentially down to 2 major Bell companies, Verizon and AT&T, within the continental United States (Ma Bell/AT&T was split into 22 Baby Bells in 1982 as part of the 1974 anti-trust filing). Kind of scary that due to approved mergers and acquisitions, we're back to just 2 (SBC, using the AT&T name, and Verizon calling the shots)...

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/05/att....ap/index.html

[NJBlackBerry]

Yes, but times have changed since the divestiture of AT&T in 1980. There are lots of choices. Internet Telephony and cellular telephones did not exist then. Satellite/GPS communications were in their infancy and extremely expensive. Skype is a major threat to these guys...

I agree that having two companies (and Qwest) in control is not good, but there are still alternatives.

[Soapm]

Before the slplit there was one phone company and we had to pay their rate or don't get a phone. With two there is competition and with VoIP there is alternative technologies breaking the horizon. Verizon is installing fibre to the customers home and starting to compete in cable TV. They are planning to use their newly acquired MCI network to get all kinds of digital content to all their subscribers (enterprise, residential or cellular). I'm sure ATT will follow a similar path. The only loosers are those of us in the Qwest states. Who will by them? I guess Qwest has too miles of copper and too few subscribers.

[NJBlackBerry]

And AT&T and Verizon can merge. The new company will be called AT&T (but old timers will call it "the telephone company").

Judge Harold H. Greene is rolling in his grave.

[angrylogger]

There's also prevailing thought in the economics literature that such mergers are actually a good thing.

Basically, there are massive density economies in delivering cellular service (e.g. it's better to use a higher percentage of the capacity of one expensive tower vs. having four separate expensive towers running at lower utilization rates), and as such, there are efficiency gains that can come out of such mergers. As such, we're more likely to see continuing consolidation in local markets with a much bigger space for international competition. The companies want to move forward with consolidation, and the anti-trust authorities aren't really standing in their way.

In the US, the anti-trust people really only care about post-merger consumer prices (rather than the increased profitability of the merger entity). The degree of substitutable goods (see above) and the nature of price competition in cellular markets seems to keep downward pressure on rates. This is why they are letting all this go through.

[Soapm]

Here is NY Times article I stumbled across...

AT&T challenges Verizon with $67 billion deal to acquire BellSouth
AT&T on Sunday announced plans to acquire BellSouth for $67 billion in an effort to create a telecom giant that would dwarf Verizon Communications, its next closest rival. A merger of two of the four remaining Bell phone companies would represent a huge step toward recreating the monopoly that existed in the phone business before the old AT&T was broken up in 1984.The companies are expected to announce a deal as early as Monday. The combined company would have more than $125 billion in sales, 70 million local-line phone customers and nearly 10 million broadband subscribers. A deal between AT&T and BellSouth could pressure Verizon to consider buying Qwest Communications, the last of the four big Bell companies. New York Times, 3-05-06
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/bu...=1&oref=slogin

[Soapm]

Originally Posted by angrylogger

Basically, there are massive density economies in delivering cellular service (e.g. it's better to use a higher percentage of the capacity of one expensive tower vs. having four separate expensive towers running at lower utilization rates), and as such, there are efficiency gains that can come out of such mergers..

This is very true, a huge gamble and part of some of these mergers nightmares. Worldcom bought MCI and ended up with two pretty much nationwide networks. The old Worldcom 555 and the MCI 222. Those were never consolidated into one network and neither was full so now Verizon has two Nationwide networks to run. That is a inefficient cash cow.

Same is with this orange blue networks Cingular owns. They are still operating both networks in some places. It must have to do with provisioning/order entry/customer service systems but consolidation of netowrks appears to be a challenge.

[NJBlackBerry]

Y'all are completely missing the major point:

Will AT&T/SBC/BellSouth/Cingular unlock my old AT&T 7730 BlackBerry for free?

THAT IS WHAT I NEED TO KNOW!!!!

[udontknowjack]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

Y'all are completely missing the major point:

Will AT&T/SBC/BellSouth/Cingular unlock my old AT&T 7730 BlackBerry for free?

THAT IS WHAT I NEED TO KNOW!!!!

Good for you NJ, get to the most important questions right off. That is why I like having you around here. You ask the important questions when they matter.

[ErikaMarie]

Now if T-Mobile bought out CellularONE, I'd be happy.

[dc/dc]

Thankfully I am not much affected by any of this business. I am completely mobile, and my service is not provided by a Bell company. My only affiliation to a Bell is my VZAvenue broadband service that my apartment complex provides to me.

[jengel451]

Originally Posted by ErikaMarie

Now if T-Mobile bought out CellularONE, I'd be happy.

Well, that'll make your head hurt too. Cellular One is a Dba Name, in the midwest regions it's actually Western Wireless, which started/launched PCS markets as VoiceStream, then broke off and eventually was bought out by DT and became T-Mobile.

John Stanton's little projects seem to do pretty good.

[ErikaMarie]

Originally Posted by jengel451

Well, that'll make your head hurt too. Cellular One is a Dba Name, in the midwest regions it's actually Western Wireless, which started/launched PCS markets as VoiceStream, then broke off and eventually was bought out by DT and became T-Mobile.

John Stanton's little projects seem to do pretty good.

Actually... Dobson purchased the CellularONE name. I work for Dobson. While I love the company, I want to see T-Mobile grow, & I really think the only way they can compete w/ the wireless gods is by buying out the other GSM providers, IE Dobson.

So let me rephrase: I'd love to see T-Mobile buy out Dobson Cellular Systems.

[macberry12]

Originally Posted by udontknowjack

Good for you NJ, get to the most important questions right off. That is why I like having you around here. You ask the important questions when they matter.

That's what I'd like to know as well. I got caught in the ATT to Cingular to CellularONE fiasco and they killed my BB service as of Feb. 1. Found out my 7290 is "locked" and will not accept a Cingular SIM card...but Cingular was proud to tell me that THEY sold Blackberries....and offered to sell me the exact same model as the one I brought to the store. I said to the guy...why in the world would I want to buy another one when I had the exact same model already??

I am about to lose my mind, here. Does anyone know if it's even possible to unlock an ATT 7290??

Thanks!
MacBerry in TX

[NJBlackBerry]

Wow. I was only kidding...

MacBerry - check out Bongo Wireless or GSM PhoneSource and see if they can help.

[timmyc123]

Isn't AT&T using Cingular's name now? So they are going back to using the name AT&T? ahh all those logos on the phones are chaning soo fast. Nextels are sprints cingulars are AT&Ts ahhhhh confusion...

[coreyg510]

Do you know how long it will take me to learn "welcome to AT&T"?!?!?

[dozment]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

Y'all are completely missing the major point:

Will AT&T/SBC/BellSouth/Cingular unlock my old AT&T 7730 BlackBerry for free?

THAT IS WHAT I NEED TO KNOW!!!!

MF4788P!!!!!

(I've been waiting months to do that!)

[BlueBerry112]

Originally Posted by macberry12

That's what I'd like to know as well. I got caught in the ATT to Cingular to CellularONE fiasco and they killed my BB service as of Feb. 1. Found out my 7290 is "locked" and will not accept a Cingular SIM card...but Cingular was proud to tell me that THEY sold Blackberries....and offered to sell me the exact same model as the one I brought to the store. I said to the guy...why in the world would I want to buy another one when I had the exact same model already??

I remember those times. I was with Sprint when it first started a few years ago but I had friends who were with AT&T Wireless and they were hating life during the migration to Cingular. A few quit all together and went over to other carriers because of all the headaches. Both companies got a bad rap for that and I know it took a long time to convince people that they knew what they were doing. I still donxxx8217;t know why they would go back to the AT&T Wireless name right when people were starting to forget the pains of the past.