Ringing Alarm Bell on the Baby Bells

WSJ reports that ATT is about to buy BellSouth for $ 67 billion. The ink on the SBC-ATT and the Verizon-MCI consolidation is barely dry.

Exactly a decade after deregulation, two of the previous Baby Bells have emerged to the top - and are going to just about each carve the US market in half. You could somewhat understand the rationale behind letting weakened ATT and MCI get acquired, but BellSouth?

It's time to ring the alarm:

a) As I have written before US telecom leadership has slipped significantly in world rankings over the last decade. We need to understand why even more consolidation will in fact encourage innovation.
b) This book suggests a $ 200 billion "broadband scandal" over the last decade.
c) Recent debates on "net neutrality" suggest consumers may get hit for even more charges

Telecommunications are increasingly the single biggest utility for many households. CIOs spend more on telecom services than hardware, software and tech services - combined.

We need to debate this proposed consolidation a lot more and if allowed to proceed wring many more specific concessions and commitments from ATT and Verizon going forward.

Update: The New York Times POV