First it was time of day. Now this. Are land lines the next to go? Or maybe paper phone books.
After years of seeing its public pay-phone business migrate to cell phones, AT&T Inc. said Monday that it will phase out its pay phones in Illinois and 12 other states by the end of 2008.
While AT&T's decision doesn't mean the end of the pay phone -- independent firms still will offer the service -- public phones will become even more difficult to find.
Alcatel and Lucent Agree to Merge in $13.4 Billion Deal
Topic: Telecom Industry
6:27 pm EDT, Apr 2, 2006
Alcatel of France and Lucent Technologies said today that they had reached agreement on a $13.4 billion merger that would create a French-American maker of telecommunications equipment with revenue of $25 billion, 88,000 employees and phone company customers across the world.
Well, at least the downward spiral for these executives includes a few years in the city of lights, even if:
It is stultifying and dull and leads to a nation that dresses less like Catherine Deneuve in "Belle de Jour" and more like timid, provincial town hall employees.
The most famous single scene--one those who have seen it refer to again and again--involves something we do not see and do not even understand. A client has a small lacquered box. He opens it and shows its contents to one of the other girls, and then to Severine. We never learn what is in the box. A soft buzzing noise comes from it. The first girl refuses to do whatever the client has in mind. So does Severine, but the movie cuts in an enigmatic way, and a later scene leaves the possibility that something happened.
What's in the box? The literal truth doesn't matter. The symbolic truth, which is all Bunuel cares about, is that it contains something of great importance to the client.
In a major blow to Internet firms such as Amazon.com and Google, the House Energy and Commerce Committee expects to scrap plans for "network neutrality" safeguards in forthcoming telecommunications legislation, congressional and industry sources said. Instead, the panel would move a streamlined video franchising bill sought by AT&T and Verizon Communications, which are deploying video services that will compete with cable companies.
The November - December 2005 issue of the Cook Report looks at different forms of Broadband. It describes the regulatory-political victory of the Duopoly in the United States. It examines IMS and a carrier control mechanism and then outlines Duopoly’s coming and likely IMS oriented struggle with the Application Service Providers (Google, eBay, Yahoo, Amazon) for control of digital networks.
Here's an idea: Search IS social networking IS Search. Google is a SNS. Not Orkut -- the Google Google. Discuss.
SBC is in talks to buy AT&T for more than $16 billion.
A deal, if reached, would be the final chapter in the 120-year history of AT&T, the first technological giant of the modern age and the original model for telecommunications companies worldwide. A deal would be a reunion of sorts, putting back together some of the largest pieces of the Ma Bell telephone monopoly, which was broken up in 1984.
Julie Snyder found herself in a ten-month battle with her phone company (MCI Worldcom), which had overcharged her $946.36. She spent hours on hold, in a bureaucratic nowhere. No one seemed able to fix her problem, and there was no way she could make the company pay her back for all her lost time and aggravation.
Finally, she enlists the aid of the national media.
Behind the scenes, a fierce battle is emerging among rival companies and between federal and state regulators over the shape of new government regulations and control of the service, which has the potential to be the most significant development in telecommunications since the breakup of the AT&T monopoly 20 years ago.
It promises to be one of the most important political battles of the next Congressional session.
