Finally, FCC Approves AT&T - Bellsouth Merge

After a long standoff the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the $86 billion merger between AT&T and Bellsouth. This merger has been split between Republicans and Democrats for months, but they finally came to an agreement after certain conditions were applied and the merger was approved with a 4-0 vote.

The AT&T - Bellsouth merger will give AT&T control over half of the telephone and internet lines across the United States. However, AT&T did not get approved until after a new proposal was sent to the FCC that met certain conditions.

The main problem was that Robert McDowell, who was supposed to be the fifth commissioner, removed himself from voting because he was involved in an industry that opposed the AT&T - Bellsouth merger. Only four commissioners were now allowed to vote, and so the two sides had to come to an agreement in order for the merger to be approved.

According to the FCC this merger will benefit the publics' interest, especially since AT&T had to agree to certain conditions. Some of the conditions include the sale of 2.5 GHz wireless airwaves, a $19.95 per month price for basic high speed internet and an agreement to abide by specific Network neutrality rules for the next two years. Also, AT&T has agreed to expand their network to provide internet access to 100 percent of the customers in the AT&T - Bellsouth region by the end of 2007.

Network neutrality is, according to Wikipedia, "The satisfaction of all network application needs fairly. Any particular internet host, protocol, or application should not receive preferential treatment, except to ensure correct operation of the network or protocol." This essentially gives users the freedom to run any application or device and/or access data from the internet, no matter how much data a user takes up.