The US$67 billion stock-swap deal would give AT&T control of four of the seven regional Bell companies that were created after the 1984 breakup of the original AT&T Corp. The new AT&T, which was formed when SBC Communications Inc. bought the remnants of AT&T Corp. last year and took on the latter's name, would also gain full ownership of Cingular Wireless LLC, the top wireless carrier in the U.S.

If the acquisition goes through, AT&T would be able to offer a full set of local, long-distance, wireless and enterprise networking services to users across a broad swath of the Southern and Midwestern U.S., as well as in California and Connecticut.

Some of the IT executives interviewed after the merger was announced said they're concerned that the cost of services could increase as a result of diminished competition.

"There's a possibility that [the industry] will go back into a state like it was in the past, before deregulation," said John Fisher, who until late January was CIO at SmithBucklin Corp. in Chicago. Fisher, who has started a consulting firm called Rethinking IT Inc. in Mount Prospect, Ill., added that if vendors become "the only game in town," they can try to take a different approach with users.

But new technologies such as voice over IP, and potential competition from companies such as Vonage Holdings Corp. and Skype Technologies SA, could make it harder for AT&T to take advantage of its expanded market position, according to Fisher and other IT managers.