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AT&T and BellSouth Merger May Be Bad for Consumers
Mon, 06 Mar 2006, 13:53:00 EDT
BIRMINGHAM, AL (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- AT&T is proving that you can put Humpty Dumpty back together again, says SaveOnPhone.com. After a reunion with Southwestern Bell in 2005, AT&T has just announced that it is buying BellSouth. If the sale is approved then 4 of the 7 original Baby Bells will be reunited.
"This is definitely not good for competition." says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of SaveOnPhone.com. "A number of consumer groups including Consumer's Union and the Consumer Federation of America plan to ask the Justice Department to reject the merger and we tend to agree with them. We are watching AT&T be reconstructed again right in front of our eyes. If the FCC is going to allow this to happen you have to ask why they broke them up in the first place."
The area that loses the most competition looks to be local service. The only alternative most people will have for local service in the AT&T service area will be VoIP technology and Hardekopf says that just is not enough. "Most people are not even sure what VoIP is and it requires broadband Internet access and guess who provides a good portion of that? AT&T."
Hardekopf thinks the FCC has been making a big mistake since they started letting the baby bells get back together. "If the regional bell systems would have moved in and competed in each other's markets when AT&T broke up then that would have been the best scenario for the consumer. Instead we are just watching them form a monopoly again. There is now effectively no competition for local service. You have to wonder what the FCC is actually trying to accomplish and who they are working for."
About SaveOnPhone.com
SaveOnPhone.com ( http://www.SaveOnPhone.com ) is a consumer resource that ranks the lowest rate long distance carriers based on rate, billing increments, monthly fee, USF fee and customer service wait time. It provides detailed rate and fee information that is often difficult to find in the fine print.
Created by Hampton & Associates, the company has been analyzing the telecommunications industry and supplying objective websites on various consumer expenses for over five years. ConsumerSearch.com has rated SaveOnPhone.com the #1 resource for comparing long distance service for two straight years.
For more information, contact Bill Hardekopf at billh @ SaveOnPhone.com or 800-388-1910.
NEWS SOURCE: SaveOnPhone.com / Hampton & Associates
Send2Press® is the originating wire service for this story.
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REFERENCES: AT&T and BellSouth Merger May Be Bad for Consumers, SaveonPhone, Hampton & Associates, VoIP, merger, Bell Phone, Bill Hardekopf, BellSouth, AT&T, Consumer's Union, Consumer Federation of America, SaveOnPhone.com, FCC, Alabama, broadband Internet access , Mar 6, 2006.
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