As I wrote this morning about the last minute deal offered by AT&T (NYSE: T) to gain FCC approval of its merger with Bell South (NYSE: BLS), I thought the net neutrality provisions were more sizzle than substance. But it was enough to win over the Democrats who clearly didn’t want to stand in the way of other benefits made possible by the merger.
The FCC approved the deal late Friday afternoon, clearing the final regulatory roadblock for the largest telecom industry merger in the US. The merged company will have close to $120B in annual revenues, nearly 70M access lines and about 300,000 employees.
January 1, 1984 was the day that AT&T spun out 7 regional operating companies. 23 years later, a large part gets put back together again.