SBC bought the old AT&T in November 2005 and took its name.  Verizon bought MCI in January 2006.  The new AT&T then offers to buy BellSouth for a “paltry” $67 billion in March (deal still pending).

As lawmakers debate the soundness of all three mergers, the FCC has taken steps to approve the AT&T-BellSouth consolidation, possibly as soon as at its next commission meeting October 12.  (See Philiadelphia Inquirer article.)

The question then becomes:  With only three Baby Bells remaining after the AT&T monopoly breakup, are we returning to the way things were?  Not a chance, contends the Connected World report. In particular, the “... proposed AT&T-BellSouth merger could accelerate the move to hybrid Internet-cellular phones because the two companies jointly own Cingular, the largest U.S. cellular provider, and could, as one owner, more easily integrate their Internet networks with Cingular’s cellular network.“ (pg. 31)  The theme of convergence (touched on in the September 28 blog entry on dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular) continues its evolutionary movement in the arena of the fixed-mobile world.

This is my entirely self-diagnosed and profiled definition. The symptoms of connectedness addiction are: you enter your home/work/car (any space you are connected in) and the first thing you do is check messages. You forget where you are (home/work/car) and you sit and deal with those messages immediately. Two hours have gone by and you realize you did not mean to stay dealing with the messages.

Some sociologists were afraid that anomy would be the serious consequence of connectedness (i.e., virtual worlds).

Anomy (or anomie) means:
1. A lack of regard for the generally accepted social or moral standards either in an individual or in a social group.
2. The state or condition of having no regard for the generally accepted social or moral standards.
(See definition.)

This means that some sociologists were concerned that people would withdraw from society to a fantasy world and forget to live the “normal” life (whatever normal is).

On the other hand, I have lately read articles on people who now have well over a thousand “friends,“ whom they have met through the net, games and communities. These people have also met a subset of their virtual friends in real life.

Is connectedness making us play out our extremes harder because we can? The workaholic is even more so, the withdrawn person is even more so, the extrovert is even more so….?

A semi-annual 2006 survey by CTIA - The Wireless Association indicates a 70% increase in data service revenues over the same period in 2005.  With carriers delivering over 12.5 billion text messages in the month of June 2006 as but one factoid, data service revenues for the first half of 2006 came out to $6.5 billion. See the full story.

Name recognition, cool technology and a specific target audience are not always enough to ensure success.  On-demand sports to a dedicated sports cellphone seemed like a terrific concept at first.  Connected world sports junkies would love the concept, but were there enough of them buying these one-dimensional phones?  Probably not.

Risks still abound, as competition is fierce and ESPN’s mobile phone efforts are in the process of closing down.  By never building a sustainable customer base that had broad appeal, Mobile ESPN found itself unable to overcome a flawed concept:  the public was not going to purchase the ESPN phone just to get access to ESPN content.

:  Technology alone is great but a viable business model to leverage the technology is of even greater importance.

WSJ full story.

The following quote says a lot about how far we’ve come as a connected world:

“JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Rickety minibus taxis weave between corrugated iron shacks, dodging street hawkers and the odd scrawny child with trousers gaping at the knee.

Alexandra is one of South Africa’s roughest townships and yet you can switch on your laptop there, slide in a data card and access your email in seconds using the world’s most advanced commercial wireless technology.“

Would you have expected this scenario even just a couple of years ago?  As Friedman elaborates in The World Is Flat, we are truly in the midst of a time when work can indeed be performed from literally anywhere on the globe.  And the resulting challenges to our business models will be no less significant.

Can you envision where we will be a couple of years from today?

Reuter’s article