Matthew P. McCormick is President of Technology Decisions, Inc., a Chicago-based global technical consulting firm specializing in: Telecommunications, Information Technology, and Business Strategy with respect to technological investment. Areas of practice include VoIP, Wireless Communications, and Computer Networking.
I particularly like the company's tagline: It's not that bad. We can help.
Good stuff.
Anyhow, here's what Matthew had to say regarding SBC and AT&T:
Eldercare: SBC/AT&T - Good for Whom?
Is SBC just a shopaholic? No, they are executing a vital, survival strategy: economy of scale. The Bells may not be advertising it, but their wireline business is melting like a character from Oz. As revenues from wireline steadily evaporate to the Internet and wireless, the only way to maintain market acceptable ROI is to minimize cost per unit of providing wireline service, i.e., merger. This will allow them to compete, or at least reduce the pressure, of voice alternatives now available in the mass market.
Good for SBC. The synergies are obvious. AT&T has a highly developed and highly capable IP network already in place, as well as a global fiber-optic network.
Good for the consumer? If the combined companies can afford lower prices, maybe. The question no one has addressed yet is, how much service degradation in circuit switched networks will we tolerate as funds for investment and maintenance become scarce? Remember, it was always Ma Bell who defined for us what good was. And, will there be a gap in time between a circuit switched and a packet switched PSTN? How much? How/who will manage that transition/gap when it occurs?
The present is interesting. The future can only be more so.
Don’t feel too bad. After many years in the big house, Ma Bell finally has some competition. But, if you haven’t gotten the message yet Mr./Ms. Consumer, you’re on your own!
