Over at Xchange magazine, Bob Wallace writes about the possibility of Ma Bell buying one of the DBS companies. Since Murdoch owns DirecTV and he fought so hard for it, I don't see him giving it up.

However, DISH did split its business into wholesale and retail divisions to make room for a sale. And they did have a subscriber loss this quarter. But with $2.9B in quarterly revenue, how does Ma bell afford it after all its acquisitions and its CAPEX spending needed to complete U-Verse and Internet backbone builds?

Both DISH and DTV provide service to RBOCs.

Does Ma Bell want to go back into the TV game? Remember that AT&T, the IXC, bought TCI (Liberty Media) and MediaOne in 2000? It was a mess.

There's a reason that MSO's outsource digital phone service. Stick to your knitting. Bell-heads barely understand IP let alone multi-cast and DOCSIS.

My prediction: Ma Bell will make a bid for DISH but it won't win it.