Big Deal

The $115 billion MCI-Sprint merger is huge but no help at all in resolving real phone problems

If there's anything more annoying than political ads, it's the bombardment of silly, confusing messages from phone companies trying to win your business. Politics, at least, goes away for a couple of years. No chance the phone companies will rest. They've got way too much explaining to do--like why phone bills take hours to decipher, why customers aren't automatically switched to plans that best fit their calling patterns, why long-distance carriers shift you back and forth without your consent and why it can cost more to call the next county than the next state.

The phone gods would rather focus on...

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