Meanwhile, the "
Baby Bells" (the successors of the old AT&T regional operating companies) may be tempted to build their own long-distance networks as soon as US regulators permit them to enter the long-distance voice and data businesses - something that could happen as early as this year.
Now it plans to roll out its service with a new partner, San Antonio-based SBC, although SBC-- formerly Southwestern Bell--is a
Baby Bell with far less long-distance experience than Sprint.
"In telecoms, God knows how far projected into the future, they're still adding something like a
Baby Bell a year," said Mr Mark Mechem, deputy director of the US Information Technology Office (USITO), referring to a major regional US telephone company.
Almost overnight, the citified
Baby Bell was neatly tucked beneath its country cousin's wings in a $26 billion merger that made Bell Atlantic the nation's second largest telecommunications company, behind AT&T.
Eight weeks ago, two other regional "
Baby Bell" phone companies, SBC Communications and Ameritech, agreed to a pounds 37 billion merger.
niche by niche," demonstrates the company's willingness to grind it out in a hardscrabble business as removed as any from that of its
Baby Bell co-honoree.
Here's how Paul Shumate, Jr., an executive at Bellcore, a
Baby Bell research consortium, described the potential of online gambling and video games to Macworld magazine: "You suck 'em in cheap.
Southem Bell, located in Florida and Georgia, has been the only "
Baby Bell" that seriously looked at Cox's request, McKnight said.
While Bell Atlantic was the first
Baby Bell to win FCC approval for long-distance, Southwestern Bell had actually been the first to try for it following congressional deregulation in 1996.
The independent counsel also investigated the management of Meese's blind trust; a conflict-of-interest involving decisions Meese made about the break-up of AT&T (Meese held stock in a
Baby Bell company); Meese's failure to report capital gains; an unusual arrangement in which his wife's salary at a charitable organization was donated by a friend of Wallach's, a developer who hoped to keep the Justice Department as a tenant; and Meese's assistance to Wallach in the latter's efforts to win U.S.
"ANPA is creating a myth about the
Baby Bell monopoly.
The making of the deal began early last year, while Burrell was handling the account of the New York region's
baby Bell telephone company, Nynex, according to Burrell.