Ma Bell Is Back In Action

AT&T (formerly SBC) has announced its intention to buy BellSouth for $67 billion.  This will effectively bring to an end the experiment in regulating the telecommunications industry.

AT&T Chairman Ed Whitacre has a priceless quote in the NY Times story:

"We literally have hundreds of competitors coming in every day; it's nothing like the old days," said Edward E. Whitacre, Jr., the chairman and chief executive of AT&T, the country's largest phone company. "If we're going to have the strength to compete, we better get our companies together."

Hey Ed, how many of those competitors are buying up $67 billion rivals?

Whitacre is known as a ruthless competitor. 

His work on the last major telecommunications act is legendary.  He held out until the last possible moment in negotiations for terms very favorable to SBC.  The he immediately turned around and sued to undermine the entire act.

He attempts to bully state political leaders, claiming he will move jobs out of their state and blame them for it unless the agree to major regulatory concessions.

A few years back in Oklahoma, his company was caught up in a scandal involving bribery of state regulators.

Whitacre also has a VAST lobbying network in place.  They pay top dollar for lobbyists in the states, and have even been known to pay lobbyists, just so they won't take on competitors as clients.  In addition, they are always looking to play the inside game.  For example, in Missouri, AT&T contracts with the Governor's brother, Andy Blunt.

I've always found Whitacre's PR efforts quite amusing.  A few years back, SBC was found to have vastly overcharged Missouri consumers.  The company was ordered by a court to put tens of millions of into a fund for public uses to help offset their overcharging. 

From then on, any time a local project was financed from the fund, which came about as a result of SBC overcharging, someone from the company was at the groundbreaking, getting their picture taken and taking credit for SBC's "outstanding charitable" work.

Whitacre is also quite agressive in his political giving.

So once Ed Whitacre has further his consolidated his hold on the entire telecommunications field, don't look for him to be doing consumers any favors.