As we hit a new decade, those companies have merged and merged, leaving us with 2 powerhouses: Verizon and AT&T.  Only one thing is left, for Ma Bell to become whole again.

The truth is that the services that AT&T had a monopoly on in the 1980s no longer exist.  The phone companies offer a powerful suite of services including internet access and TV service, along with the dying legacy business of local and long distance phone service.  The competitors are no longer other phone companies, but cable companies with competing digital broadband pipes.

Oh, and mobile phones too.  Verizon and AT&T have become significantly better known, marketing-wise, for their mobile networks, compared to the so-called dumb pipes.  They currently run their networks using incompatible technologies (CDMA for Verizon, GSM for AT&T).  Both services, however, are transitioning into 4G LTE networks, that would be compatible with each other.  The mobile divisions may be the biggest antitrust issue with a potential AT&T/Verizon merger, but the rest of the elements in the modern “Triple Play” business of Phone.

Do you project a Verizon / AT&T merger attempt in the next decade?  Do you think that they are already talking about it?  Discuss!

You’ve got mail.

Goodbye.

Today, AOL officially spins off from TimeWarner as an independent company, the last remnant of a merger originally announced in 2000, where the company was briefly known as AOL Time Warner.  AOL had 30 million subscribers at its peek, when they were the leader in online access.

Here is a brief history of AOL, known at its peak as America Online.

1980s: Control Video Corporation is founded.  Its sole product is Gameline, which allows users to download game to Atari video game systems, using a modem built into a cartridge.  Games are $1 rentals which expired after multiple plays or when the console was shut off.  The company also pitched music downloads to cable TV boxes, but it was rejected by the music labels.  Namely Warner Music.

1983: Future CEO Steve Case joined the company, near bankruptcy, which was reorganized under new management

1985: Company is renamed Quantum Computer Services.  Launch online network for Commodore 64 and 128 computers called Quantum Link (Q-Link for short).

1988: AppleLink is created as a joint venture with Apple for Macintosh computers.  PC Link is launched for PCs.

1989: Joint venture with Apple ends.  Service and company is renamed America Online.

1996: AOL institutes a $19.99 unlimited access rate.  Membership explodes.

2000: AOL announces a merger with Time Warner.  The new company, finalized in 2001 was called AOL Time Warner.

2003: AOL Time Warner removes AOL from its name, returning to the Time Warner name.  AOL remains a division of the company.

2009: Time Warner spins off AOL into a separate company, officially ending the relationship caused by the merger.

Now, comes news that Comcast, one of the largest and richest cable television and broadband providers in the US is a player to purchase and contol NBC Universal.  This is quite disturbing to the 7 year old inside of me.

I grew up without pay tv, until my father got DirecTV 3 months before I left for college.  My media influence centered on free, over the air, ad-supported TV and Radio.  Both are businesses destroyed by options from paid pipelines like cable, as well as legal and pirated content available online.  Where is TV?  Where is the spirit displayed by Weird Al Yancovic in UHF?

NBC made a bold move this year by programming Jay Leno at 10PM.  This is the beginning of the end of the diverse, 60 year history of broadcast network television.  The dual revenue streams of subscriptions and advertising are something that broadcast TV can’t compete with.  ESPN has become the self proclaimed “worldwide leader in sports” for this reason.  Their most recent acquisition was the college football Bowl Championship Series, which is moving from Fox and ABC to ESPN.  Broadcast can’t compete.

Currently, the FCC prohibits one company from owning broadcast TV stations AND cable systems.  Expect a potential Comcast deal to have General Electric be the sole owner of the NBC stations, with GE’s majority stake in NBCU turned into a minority ownership, with Comcast in charge.  Would the FCC even allow this?  It is quite a dangerous precedent.  NBC made a bold move a few years ago acquiring the #2 US Spanish language broadcaster Telemundo.  Will that momentum fall apart?  Is Telemundo more valuable than My Network TV?

The digital transition has come and gone.  It has left a lot of unprofitable TV stations with fancy new technology.  A merger between NBCU and Comcast essentially concedes that broadcast TV is dead.

What do you think?  Am I being too hard?  Is this just Comcast’s way of keeping that cash machine known as Joel McHale in the family?  Discuss.

How many of you have ever heard of FriendFeed before?  Raise your hand.

Personally, I’ve had a FriendFeed for over a year, yet rarely use it.  Yet I’m happy I have an account there.  It is a social media aggregator, which expands the number of entry and exit points for my internet activity.  If I post something on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or other social networks, it will show up on FriendFeed.  If I recommend a blog post on Google Reader or if I add a move to my Netflix queue, it will show up there too.  It is a very handy service.

Now to go back to Facebook.  FriendFeed has an application on Facebook to allow your friends to see all your internet activity without having to go to FriendFeed, or even knowing what it is.  Brilliant!