AT&T and Whatever Happened to Antitrust?

AT&T AND WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ANTITRUST?
[SOURCE: Center for American Progress, AUTHOR: Mark Lloyd]
[Commentary] The AT&T trust was split up in 1984, but it is recombining, leading the New York Times to ask, “Is Antitrust No Longer the Issue?” The name AT&T was recently taken by one of its former subsidiaries -- SBC -- which purchased the struggling telecommunications company. Now SBC/AT&T has announced the intended purchase of BellSouth. This would make the new AT&T the largest telecommunications corporation in the United States. The proposed merger would recombine four of the old Baby Bells. The new AT&T would provide local and long distance wireline telephone service in 22 states. AT&T would also control the largest wireless telephone service, Cingular. And, as mentioned in a previous column, AT&T seeks to control a sizeable share of our broadband access to the Internet, and to provide television service. In short, AT&T seeks to become a king over the sale of communications services, surely one of the “necessaries” of modern life. Communication services are vital to our safety; indeed they are vital to the flow of information so necessary to the very functioning of our republic. The emergence of a king of communications should send shivers through the spine of the nation.
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1530843