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Allen denies that his company is trying to re-create the old Bell System, and dismisses the Baby Bells' complaints as "mainly political." He doubts that "a showdown" between AT&T and the Baby Bells is inevitable, but he offers no such assurances to others: "If we want to serve customers, we'll expand into more fields and make more enemies. If we're seen as a threat because we're good competitors, then more power to us."
The biggest danger AT&T faces, Allen feels, is not stirring up enemies but the opposite: becoming too staid and complacent. "I live in fear that what's happening to IBM will happen to us," he says. "So we can't get too comfortable or stop asking the right questions." Sounds as if the makeover of AT&T has just begun.