Gary Kim writes that AT&T's Profit is up 30% in 2Q08, even with an 8% drop in their core busines: landlines. But when you have iPhone 1 and 2, you can add 1.3M cell customers (probably taken from Sprint). Even when building out network for U-Verse, 3G cellular, and its IP backbone worldwide (and bitching about it), Ma Bell managed to squeeze out a 30% PROFIT.

Meanwhile, Ma Bell has been petitioning for Forbearance at the FCC. The RBOC's have already been granted unregulation on DSL, fiber, and other elements. The result seems to be that profits increase and competitors struggle - so choice to the consumer is nullified. If only we had an FCC that was run by the real Harry Potter instead of a guy who just looks like him. (Harry spent six books and five movies fighting the forces of evil.)

BTW, if AT&T gained, someone lost, because these are all flat markets (or at least markets that are not growing that fast.