AT&T's basic business is transport, so to the extent that AOL would give them more traffic and to the extent that AT&T could limit AOL's involvement with its competitors . . . it's certainly something they need to look at. |
I think this is going to get close scrutiny. This raises the bar as far as the nervousness [about regulatory approval] the companies should be feeling right now. |
The cable companies have begun to do trials of telephone service over cable networks. I think this acquisition will speed things up. The combination of AT&T's financial muscle and the advent of Internet based telephony will be the two things that will push that along, and I would think you would be seeing Internet telephony over cable systems in the next three years. |
The church influence washes over, runs through, pervades everything we do. |
The Internet is clearly an emerging market that is going to be huge over the next decade, and this is going to be the leading player. |
What that will tend to do will be to drive down accounting rates in international markets, which will tend to stimulate volume growth, and that will be a good deal for customers. |
While the gain was included in operating results, it was clearly stated up front in the earnings press release, and management encouraged analysts to remove it from their earnings models. |