No matter what side of the US you are on you have to had dealings with either Bellsouth or AT&T. They used to be the same company for phone service and in parts cellphone service and was broken up in 1984. The reason, they were becoming a monopoly (and not the game, either).Now they are back together again like Roberta and Donny.

FCC approves $87b AT&T + BellSouth merger: now what? - Engadget


What does this mean? For phone service, not much unless you get into Voice over IP service like Vonage (AT&T is said to have or will have one too). You can't move too many places that Ma Bell hadn't touched. Cellphones, you're still kinda screwed. If you were an AT&T wireless person when they got eaten by Cingular, say hi to and old friend. AT&T is reclaiming Cingular and changing it's name back to AT&T wireless. (the formerly known as) SBC is a part of AT&T and I believe Suncom was leasing network from AT&T. Maybe Alltel too, who knows. As far as cell service, I think that leaves Verizon as a contender and number 2 in service. Well except that Verizon was once Bell Atlantic Mobile which is a Bellsouth property.


The moral of the story for you? If you plan on changing phone services (particularly cell phone), make sure you research the company to see if you are not leaving the company you are going back to. What goes around, comes around I guess.

P.S.
I could be wrong about a couple of statements, but I will correct them upon further review.