On the surface, it's another merging of two industry behemoths on the way toward a monopoly, but Kevin Maney writing for USA Today has a different take. AT&T, the entity seeking the merger, is hamstrung by debt and overhead which keeps it from "using it's income efficiently". Unfortunately, they are trying to overcome this by acquiring Bell South, itself pounded on all fronts by wireless, internet phones, and cable.

The local phone companies' biggest tribulation — and this includes AT&T, BellSouth, Verizon and Qwest — is that their main business is built on an expensive infrastructure that's quickly becoming obsolete. They are like railroads at the dawn of the jet age. They send calls around using circuit-switched networks when the world is moving to Internet-style networks. They have millions of miles of skinny copper wire underground and on telephone poles at a time when whole cities are starting to build wireless broadband Internet systems that are better and cheaper.

The first item of business for the new megacorp will be to layoff some 10,000 employees.