Baby Bell

Today’s AT&T is a bulked-up Baby Bell, SBC Communications, finally acquiring its Ma, so to speak, in 2005 and taking the name.

But if it happens at all, that will be very difficult – breaking up AT&T lasted a decade, from the 1974 lawsuit to the 1984 launch of the “Baby Bell” companies.

Having worked for a “baby Bell” for much of my career, I personally witnessed the good and the bad from AT&T’s 1980s teardown.

AT&T, whether the old Ma Bell or the rebranded one acquired by “Baby Bell” SBC, has never been good about cloaking desperation.

Last year, it bought satellite television business DirecTV for $49 billion, making the former Baby Bell the country’s largest pay television provider.