Ma Bell is back!

Ma Bell is back!

The FCC unanimously approved AT&T' s $86bn buyout of BellSouth, in a 4-0 score (no it is not a soccer result, it is more serious). Now ATT has successfully put several of its old pieces back together in what is the largest US telecom merger. Verizon, Qwest and Embarq are the only missing pieces of the old Ma Bell system. So what happened last week for turning the vote unanimously? ATT sent new proposals on Thursday, offering to observe the principles of network neutrality, to sell naked DSL lines at $20 per month, and divest its 2.5GHz spectrum assets. Network neutrality were the magic words, even if ATT excludes network neutrality for its enterprise and IPTV offerings.

The combined mammoth will report $ 117bn in revenues, have 35m customers, handle some 69m local phone lines and have operation in 22 states. Of course, ATT is now the largest US telcos, but also the largest worldwide operator.