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Market consolidation in the US:  Qwest has already gained a footprint in the negotiation. Its proposal will be discussed in the two coming weeks with MCI, with the okay from Verizon!  I do not know what will be the output, but analysts do not seem impressed by Qwest rationales. Wait and see.

The noise around deal was hiding for the past few weeks another deal, worth $6bn, between Alltel and Western Wireless. Alltel could gain the six largest wireless carrier slot (and even the fifth position after the Sprint/Nextel merger is closed) with more than 10m subscribers.

With SBC/ATT and Verizon/MCI or more generally vertically integrated mastodons, the Ma-Bell system is back, after 20 years of deregulation and structural changes. The US telecom industry has now come full circle.