[Infowarrior] - Fractured phone system consolidating once again

[Richard Forno]

Fractured phone system consolidating once again
Updated 5/11/2006 12:30 AM ET
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-phone-history_x.htm

AT&T's relationship with the federal government has been a century in the
making. The company was founded in 1885 and over the next century became the
nation's de facto phone monopoly. At its peak in the early 1980s, it
employed 1 million people.

In 1984, the Bell Telephone System was broken up by a court decree. AT&T's
local operating companies ‹ there were 22 in all ‹ were grouped into seven
"regional Bells" and spun off as separate companies. Each had monopoly
control over local phone service in a specific region of the country.

The parent company, AT&T ‹ originally called the American Telephone &
Telegraph Co. ‹ was also spun off. Its business was exclusively
long-distance service.

Since then, Ma Bell has been largely reconstituted. Today's AT&T is an
amalgam of three Bells: Ameritech, Southwestern Bell and Pacific Telesis,
plus AT&T, which is essentially the long-distance arm of the company. The
carrier recently announced plans to buy BellSouth, another of the original
seven regional Bells, for $67 billion.

Once the BellSouth deal closes, AT&T will cement its position as the
nation's biggest communications company. It will also assume control of
Cingular, the nation's biggest cellphone carrier with more than 45 million
customers.

Verizon isn't far behind. The carrier, based in New York, is the result of
mergers of two Bells ‹ Nynex and Bell Atlantic ‹ plus GTE and MCI. Verizon
also controls the No. 2 wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless.

BellSouth is the smallest of the lot. But its local phone territory covers
the sprawling Southeast ‹ nine states in one of the fastest-growing regions
in the USA today.

That leaves Qwest. The carrier, based in Denver, is the product of a merger
between one of the seven regional Bells, US West, plus Qwest, a
long-distance carrier. Qwest provides service in a 14-state region in the
West and Northwest.