What will the acquisition of BellSouth mean to consumers?
SBC has 60 percent ownership in Cingular Wireless. BellSouth has 40 percent. The integration of the two companies means we’re going to have 100 percent of the wireless business under one owner. You’re going to see a company where technology and innovations happen faster. It will be easier to make decisions and make them faster. Will the mergers mean any change in the number of employees in San Diego? In San Diego, we have over 4,500 employees. SBC always had a large contingent of employees here. The mergers do not have any impact on the number of employees here. What is the future of the traditional copper-wire telephone system? We continue to extend the (optic) fiber of our network. The traditional copper wires remain an effective conduit of that infra-structure to the home. As we continue to create the most advanced Internet protocol-based services, the traditional phone system continues to be a valuable part of our network. In the future, we see an IP-based network serving three scr
