The Bell companies have always acted as if getting bigger is their birthright. They are ready to buy cable TV companies or Internet peapods or even each other to fulfill a certain theory about competition: If you are big, you will win. They play this game with the caution and deliberate movement of fat kings reaching across the dinner table for another leg of lamb, certain that their status will frighten others from grabbing it before them. And, it is their game to play. As the local-loop heavies, they have an advantage over new competitors with their regional networks already in place. They also have plenty of cash saved from all those years when competition was still distant thunder.
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