Much hubbub yesterday and of course this morning about the AT&T deal to buy BellSouth.

And while these deals are great for the deal brokers and company executives, they have mixed results when it comes to making the winning company any better (let's take HP and Compaq deal, for example).

At the bottom of the pile is the lowly customer, left to wonder if this is going to cost him or her more or less. Or how about making life easier? In fact, wasn't the original breakup of Ma Bell supposed to do both?

Anyway, let's see how this deal pans out, but can they at least get better coverage for their Cingular Wireless network? In my house, through extensive testing, Sprint and Verizon are in a dead heat for consistent, all-the time cell phone coverage. In third place (waaaay behind), is -- can you guess? -- Cingular, with coverage that is spotty at best.

Like I said, let's see what the future will bring ...