Be Very Afraid

A few years ago I worked as an instructor for a Call Center with a contract to GTE, a large telephone provider in Texas. As an introduction to the material, we talked about the background of the Telephone Companies (Tel Cos) and the legislation that caused the breakup of AT&T into Long Distance and small Tel Cos. The Department of Justice ordered the breakup because they were the big dog and the could wag the market. Here in the heartland we were order served by South Western Bell (SWBell) and there was Mountain Bell, Pacific Bell (PACBell) and a lot of smaller companies to include new cellular carriers. I'm sure there were new companies formed since that were not even thought of.
For some reason, AT&T was able to convince the Dept of Justice that if they owned SWBell it was such a small bite of the market and the market was so competitive that it wouldn't cause the consumer to pay higher rates. Just today it was announced that AT&T is being given the OK to purchase Bell South and oh, by the way that move also gives them control of Singular wireless. AT&T is busy putting back together their big cash cow and some time in the future they will want a bigger bite. Be afraid, be very afraid that our Government is not paying attention to this and it will result in fewer providers and less competition. Just so Dave will understand how this impacts his economics class, more demand and fewer providers will allow for higher prices. Not cause, allow.
I apologize that there are no pictures today. My computer and the Blog server are in conflict today and I get about half way through the download and everything dies. Words are all I can send today.