at&t-BST merger - good or bad?

"A question arising from the AT&T – Bell South merger announcement is the impact the deal will have on innovation in the telecommunications sector. The commentary swings between two poles: This deal will be good for customers because it will accelerate the deployment and adoption of broadband and wireless technologies and services such as VOIP; and this deal will be bad for customers because there isn’t a ton of competition in every local market. The wild card here is government regulation.......My point is that since deregulation, the big innovations in telecom technology have come from upstart competitors. These innovations were adapted, bought or co-opted by the Baby Bells and long-distance providers once the upstarts demonstrated a market for them. I’m not saying that AT&T et.al don’t have the capacity for innovation."