I just got my bill in the mail from SBC and they're now telling me how they're working along with AT&T. Oh great. I guess AT&T sucks so bad they decided they have no choice but to join SBC, a company which also sucks. Now I expect service, which really sucks. I'm stuck with these pieces of trash for at least six months. Stupid multinational corporations.
There are good companies out there. Most of the good companies are small though. I don't hate all companies. But it seems once a company gets to a certain level customer service deteriorates. The best companies of I've done business with are all online, run by small business people like myself who are willing to negotiate and don't take the "its my way or the highway attitude."
So At&t thinks by "merging" with SBC they are going to bring their garbage to people like me? We'll see about that. What you call it doesn't matter, because their service is going to be poor.
I'm a fan of SBC, I use their Cingular cellular service and have been happy with it. Of course, they have been advertising on my blog for nearly two years, and I write a weekly column for their Project DU, so I could be a bit biased. http://www.projectdu.com/blogs.aspx?ChannelID=2&ArticleID=0
The Ma Bell break-up has expired. I was on project with Lucent back in '99 or '00 and they had big plans of bringing Ma Bell back together again once the expiration date hit. Unfortunately for them, their stock took a dive along with everyone else's but I would be surprised if we didn't see a major consolidation happen in the next 6-8 years. Long term telco investments are pretty solid IMO. You're either going to invest in a company that's going to get bought a little bit overpriced or a company that will turn into a giant by the time the kids hit college.