Putting AT&T Back Together Again

All the way back on September 23rd, 2005 this correspondent reported the rumor that SBC would buy BellSouth and then change the name of the company to ATT... So I got the order wrong. First SBC changed its name to ATT. Now they are buying BellSouth. I guess they didn't feel the need, given the current administration, to conceal their desire to reconstruct the old AT&T monopoly.

The question that we as citizens should be asking is, in a country where politics clearly can be influenced by money, why do we want to have only one (or two) companies to have responsibility for a public trust like our data networks? Remember the old saying, "what's good for General Motors is good for America?" Will we soon hear, "what's good for ATT... ?" I don't want public policy in the US to be determined by corporations at all. But since it is, let's at least encourage healthy debate amongst the corporate interests by having a multitude of voices calling for the governments attention. Not a single behemoth that simply dictates policy.