Bear in mind that the current AT&T isn't the old one. This AT&T is essentially Southwest Bell trying to put the monopoly back together. The old AT&T foundered p

Bear in mind that the current AT&T isn't the old one. This AT&T is essentially Southwest Bell trying to put the monopoly back together. The old AT&T foundered probably on not keeping their tech up to date, they were not even able to cope with the introduction of number portability. That's probably a simplistic take, but I think mostly true. Current AT&T will make terrible mistakes because of different internal politics.