With Katrina and all the other hurricanes hitting Bell south's area, they are just overwhelmed. The prize here is Cingular anyway; the landline business is declining. Since neither SBC nor Bell South have too much interest in FiOS, the harm the consumers near term is minimal. In fact, some of the hurricane-ravaged areas may see upgrades and repairs sooner rather than later. The impact will be felt near term and longer term most by small and mid-sized businesses, especially those run out of the home. Most of the expense of NxT1/T3 (typical speeds needed by small and mid-sized businesses lines are eaten up by the atrocious local-loop charges, which will most likely rise as a result of this deal. Getting Ethernet and/or Fiber to the premises will be a long way away in the areas served by these two companies. Yes there is cable and DSL, but for now these are not as reliable as the dedicated lines that a NxT1 or a T3 would bring. Add the that the need for some to multi-home and the costs continue to rise. This is where the FCC, in the role of regulator, would do the most good. But as someone mentioned in a previous post the FCC is feckless at this point. Bigger is not necessarily better or worse, but when government abdicates its role as the regulator of free markets, it is most definitely worse. Edward Ray