Ma Bell Slowly Rising From The Ashes

Ma Bell used to inspire fear. Now, it doesn't exist. "Ma Bell", of course, refers to AT&T, once the biggest company in the U.S. That AT&T once controlled all the telephone lines in America. Up until 1984, if you had a phone in your house, you had AT&T service (there were, of course, exceptions to this: growing up, we had GTE, which was an independent company, and my family still had it until it was swallowed by Verizon). So, what happened in 1984?

Well, the federal government decided that one company controlling all telephone lines was a monopoly (it actually decided this in 1974, but took ten years to make it happen; that's the government for ya!). So, Ma Bell's regional phone line system was split up amongst seven new spinoff companies, the Baby Bells: Ameritech, NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Pacific Telesys, Southwest Bell, and US West. See, no more monopoly, because all of these little companies now own the phone lines. "But, I've never heard of any of these companies." Well, that's because they no longer exist. Telecommunications is a huge business, and has become one of the most important businesses in the 21 years since Ma Bell's bust up. With the advent of fiber optic cable, it is now possible to receive phone, cable, and broadband internet service, all over your phone line. "What's that got to do with these companies, though?" Well, it's hard to make money if a company is only providing these extremely costly services to five or six states worth of subscribers (with a population of 900,000, how much revenue do you think the state of Montana generates for a phone company?). So, one company buys another company to gain control of their share of the phone network. Now, 21 years after the death of Ma Bell, there are only four Baby Bells: SBC, Verizon, Qwest, and BellSouth, all but one with weird new names. Of the three independent, non-Bell companies that existed after the breakup, only one, Cincinnati Bell, hasn't merged with a Baby Bell.

"That's a fascinating history lesson, moron, but how's this at all relevant?" Because it's all happening again. Last week, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal both floated stories about SBC buying its former parent, AT&T. While this merger is only rumored, it would create the largest telecom company in the world, and open the gates for something really scary: the resurrection of Ma Bell, with all kinds of new WMDs. Imagine a company that is: second only to Verizon in phone customers; one of America's leading providers of satellite TV service; first in long distance service; first in cell phone subscribers; first in high-speed internet; first in business networking; and has controlling shares in cable television giant Liberty Media, which in turn has controlling shares in News Corp. and Time Warner. Then, imagine a future merger with any other communications company, such as Comcast, DirectTV, or, worst of all, the largest Baby Bell, Verizon. Ma Bell controlled our phones; this will control our lives.

The funny thing about all of this is that the government will allow it to happen, even though they broke it up in the past. Why? Because it's not very high on their priority list. They'd rather make sure that people in a country thousands of miles away Rock The Vote, rather than make sure their own citizens don't take it in the ass on phone service. Maybe it's trivial in The Grand Scheme of Things, but I pay $40 for the pleasure of just having a phone in my house; I'll be fucking ecstatic when I have to pay $100 for that privilege. That's what happens when the telecom companies begin eating their competition: they can charge you whatever the fuck they want, because, you're gonna switch to who? Oh, yeah, that company that doesn't exist any more. Competition is a good thing: it keeps the rates down. But, it's going in the other direction now. "Mother" is back in business, and that's not good.