IP Democracy: Must-Read: SBC and Verizon Get Ready for Competitive Battle

Business Week has a series of articles that examine the critical turning points for the phone business, timed to coincide with the DOJ’s clearance (with conditions) of the mergers of SBC-AT&T and Verizon-MCI. At the heart of this series is a piece that looks at the top two telco leaders, Verizon and SBC, and the competitive challenges they face from VoIP, among other forces.

Chief among the telcos’ top priorities is to enter the video business, with both Verizon and SBC devoting a lot of energy to revamping their networks to compete with cable. (See item posted today about the current state of telco-offered video services.)

More interesting is the fact that once the mergers close, SBC and Verizon will become competitors to each other, a new situation for the formerly cozy RBOCs.

The two giants will be pushed into tangling with each other more than ever before, too. They’ve already stepped up their rivalry in wireless. Next, with the acquisitions of AT&T and MCI, will come corporate services and Internet calling. Net technology is now developed enough that it will be easy for Whitacre and Seidenberg to compete for customers in each other’s territories. AT&T has already been pushing Internet calling, so once SBC closes its deal, it will be in direct competition with Verizon in all of its top markets, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Los Angeles.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 31, 2005 9:25 AM to IP Democracy