We can do anything we want, we're the phone company...
Posted on 03/04/2006 10:22:21 PM PST by HAL9000
Excerpt -
AT&T Inc. is nearing the acquisition of BellSouth Corp. for roughly $65 billion, people familiar with the situation said Saturday evening. A deal could be announced as early as Monday, these people said.~snip~
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Last time, the government called this a monopoly, and I agree that it was. Why is it different now? AT&T just bought SBC, who bought Ameritech a while back. If there's only one or two giant phone companies, why even have antitrust laws in the first place?
Maybe it will be your job security.
I remember the good old days when Ma Bell wouldn't allow you to attach an answering machine or a fax machine or a computer modem to your telephone connection.
The Empire Strikes Back
He beat me to it...
But like I said Bell did have some problems and that was one of them. But then again these days you better make certain you either buy a maintenance contract or know enough to trouble shoot the wiring in your home. If you don't and your side is the problem Bell bills you for the call. LOL They had to catch you first. A spare phone was the easiest to catch. A guy on Test Board could measure the line and read two phones UNLESS you disconnected one of the phones ringers.
I like going aroud to thrift stores and buying Western Electric touch tone phones. Those things last nearly forever.
Basically it has to do with ownership of end user equipment..phones...switches.etc. The telco's just want to sell dialtone. But lately they have tried to put the sqwueeze on cable companies. Every program they pushed through failed within 18 months though. I worked for Pac Tel, Pac Bell, Pac Telesis, and SBC. Got out five years ago as a mid level manager. I don't know what ED has in mind but he is close to Bush and only has a year or two to go. Randall Srevenson is being grommed to take Ed's place.
I got to see the old mechanical switching Central Offices before ESS. It amazed me how may dad would look at an IBM card feom the trouble recorder and walk through two stories of bay after bays of relays to the right place. He taught me how to read them and since he worked evenings I got to learn quite a bit even though I went into another profession.
He started out in 1946 taking out the old crank phones and installing new at that time rotary phones on 8 party lines. When they put in 4-A he went to school and went inside. When it cut over he went to Special Services back outside climbing. The climbing instructor got a site to see watching an old timer go up :>}
He did do one thing rather halarious. When I was in the Navy our phone line was on the old paper wrapped rural wire. It was causing problems and making the phone ring off the wall. I was supposed to be flying home that night and he couldn't get it to trip ringing. There was a plane crash also but I was on another plane. He had been after them to bury a new cable but they didn't do it. When the phone starting ringing that night he pulled it off the wall and busted it into pieces and put them on his bosses desk the next day. That didn't work so he went to the state Public Service Commission. We got the first ESS Central Office in Tennessee and new cable.
And why would a guy who is "close to Bush" hire a clintonista like William Daley to be president of SBC?
"Last Time" was 1984, and there were only 2 long distance companies (and a handful of local companies).
Today there are more long distance companies than you can count, and some like Vonage are pretty cheap.
You've also got Cable companies offering high speed internet (which translates into local and long distance and video phones).
Likewise there are several cell phone providers today...back in 1984 you either had 2-way radio or a land line.
So it's a different world today than when the original AT&T monopoly was broken up. The internet, cable, and cell phone providers have changed the playing field.
Furthermore, long distance has become a commodity. It's hard to believe, but back in 1984 people actually thought that AT&T long distance service was better quality (e.g. sound, connection, etc.) than MCI (i.e. the only competition).
Today, people just look at what long distance costs because no one notices any difference in quality.
So you're still going to have competition even after AT&T re-forms.
And that merger will enable the elimination of thousands of meaningless middle-management jobs...positions long-ago made obsolete by better technology (e.g. inter-office email, computer networks, on-line forms, etc.)...which will further drive down costs for consumers.
If you've ever been inside a Bellsouth or AT&T headquarters building, it's an exercise in 3rd world bureaucracy watching. Layers upon layers of unnecessary management. You could literally fire thousands of BellSouth managers (BLS has a manager for every 3 employees) tonight and still have dial-tone for all customers tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year.
I can't wait to see how this reduction of competition plays out on my phone bill.
Then after the cable company gets congress to dereg they're gonna "give me everything I deserve".
I've been assuming the position for so long it's starting to affect my posture.
Welcome to the new AT&T. Here's your pink slip.
It's amazing to look at a Big Baby Bell bill and see how many little charges ya get dinged for. Will the new AT&T be any relief to this. We shall see.
Ah the good old days.
A long distance call was a buck in the day and sixty cents at night.
You could have any phone you liked-- as long as it was black and weighed thirty five pounds.
A second jack in the house? Well, let's see if we can get another mortgage.
Instead of tennis elbow you got phone knuckle from the rotarty dial.
Ma Bell was not a "benign" monopoly.
No. To get away from those charges you've got to make the jump to internet telephony (e.g. Vonage), or cell phone.
Kill your land line if the small charges matter to you.
AW JEEZ! Ma bell is back!
I remember as a kid my dad had to make a lng distance phone call (1970 about). He could hardly hear the other end. He talked to the international operator to complain. She said "Sir you could always use another service". Laughed and hung up. My ol'man was p**sed. As soon as they broke up you can bet he never used AT&T again.
Now their BAAAACK.
Yeah, ironic isn't it.
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