On the pricing front, though, Fisher and other Premier 100 attendees said the availability of new technologies such voice over IP (VOIP) and potential competition from companies such as Vonage Inc. and Skype Technologies SA could make it harder for AT&T to take advantage of its expanded market position if the BellSouth deal goes through.

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

Blalock, who also is a 2006 Premier 100 honoree, said Southern Co. is "moving fast" to start up some VOIP pilot projects. She noted, though, that the utility is a big customer of both AT&T and BellSouth and has received solid service from the two vendors in the past. Blalock's AT&T account representative sent a message to her BlackBerry device early Tuesday morning to notify her of the deal and followed up with another message assuring her that AT&T would continue an ongoing disaster recovery initiative between Southern Co. and BellSouth.

"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 echoed by other Premier 100 attendees.

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