AT&T''s $85-billion acquisition of BellSouth approved

30 December 2006

The acquisition reunites large parts of AT&T's former domain, merges BellSouth's nine-state territory in the South into AT&T's existing operations spanning the Midwest, Southwest and West Coast and provides AT&T complete control over Cingular Wireless, the country's largest mobile-telephone provider. at a time when wireless is the newest frontier for reaching the Internet.

Cingular is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth.

Critics of the deal argue that AT&T's size also could give it more power to set prices for telephone and other services. AT&T has said that at the moment it would not impose any new charges on web companies that use its lines.

The Federal Communication Commission had long been deadlocked over AT&T's purchase of BellSouth as Republican and Democratic commissioners sparred over what conditions to impose on the deal.

The company had offered significant concessions to protect consumers and ensure competition.

AT&T's commitments include a two-year commitment to abide by "net neutrality" — agreeing not to discriminate against web companies either in pricing or in access to lines - an about-face for the company, which had vigorously argued that it should be allowed to give priority to Internet firms such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft if they pay for it.