The planned acquisition could limit traditional telecommunications options for corporate users, said Rebecca Blalock, CIO at Southern Co., an electric utility in Atlanta. But AT&T and other telecommunications carriers "are living in a world where they aren't the only technology out there," she said. "That's why I'm not as concerned as I might be if there weren't other technologies available."

Southern is "moving fast" to start up some VoIP pilot projects, Blalock said. But she noted that the utility is a big customer of both AT&T and BellSouth and has received solid service from them in the past. Blalock said she was heartened by the fact that her AT&T account representative sent a message about the merger deal to her BlackBerry device early last Monday and followed up with another message assuring her that AT&T would continue a new disaster-recovery initiative between BellSouth and the utility.

Consolidation model

"It's certainly going to be easier for me to deal with one entity than it is to deal with two," Blalock said -- a sentiment that was echoed by other IT executives who are looking to combine various services under a single vendor.

Dan Buchanan, manager of IT at Parker Hannifin Corp.'s O-Seal division in San Diego, said the company as a whole has been moving to consolidate its telecommunications business with AT&T. In addition to giving Parker Hannifin a single point of contact for its telecommunications needs, the strategy is designed to help the company negotiate better pricing by grouping together all of its telecommunications spending, Buchanan said.