Hitting the merger pause button: AT&T and MCI were the big ones to watch in the long-distance industry, and now they've been gobbled up by Baby Bells. Are there lessons to be learned for wireless?

Wireless Week, November, 2005 by Rockwell, Mark

WASHINGTON -- Wireless carriers could glean a lesson or two from last month's FCC approved of the SBC Communications/AT&T and Verizon Communications/MCI mergers, which marked an end to the two toughest long-distance competitors, analysts say.

The wireless children of SBC and Verizon Communications--Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless--are unlikely to see any direct discounts due to their parents" growing size, since anticompetitive laws require the wireline companies to offer comparable rates to all of their customers. Still, the approval of the wireline mergers raises questions once again for both the wireline and wireless industries.

In their heyday, AT&T and MCI were the two behemoths in the long-distance industry. They became archrivals...