It’s an Exciting Time To Be a Geek

In the summer of 2000, within the confines of a cubicle in uptown Phoenix, at a time when nascent telecommunications companies were burning through a gazillion dollars to build global networks under the earth and sea, I began my new job.

The editors instructed me that morning to write about companies (Global Crossing, 360 Networks) who freely used words like “dark fiber" as if that meant squat to a reporter who previously covered a universe inhabited by affluent environmentalists and grizzly bears.

Man, I felt entirely out of my comfort zone and wished I was back in Jackson interviewing a sheep rancher. But PHONE+ Editor-in-Chief Khali Henderson assured me that I would understand this stuff – eventually.

A few months later, I began to comprehend the business picture (the buzz words like “value add" still were and remain an enigma to me) when the manure hit the fan. Hundreds of companies went broke, shareholders lost the farm and Chapter 11 bankruptcy lawyers made a killing.

So began the great telecom bust and an era of reorganizations that wiped out an unfathomable amount of debt.  

Much has changed since those dark days, and yet quite a bit remains the same.

AT&T is still around, yet it is a much different company than a decade ago. As one of the most storied names in the communications business with roots dating back to Alexander Graham Bell, AT&T used to be a bitter enemy of the regional Bell telephone companies like BellSouth and SBC.

Then, SBC acted as a rational predator: It ate its prey, acquiring AT&T for more than $16 billion in 2005, prudently retaining the AT&T moniker, then later scooping up its brother BellSouth in a massive acquisition.

The industry has consolidated even more since then (many of you will recall the high-flying days of MCI Worldcom, led by a Mr. Ebbers) and is in the midst of a “convergence." 

Years ago, we dorky telecom writers explored the spectacular possibilities of 3G mobile services and unified communications technologies that would combine email, telephone services, Internet access, television and other cool stuff.

After a while, it became exhausting, speculating over all the phenomenal applications that people would use – and more importantly pay for – on dinky mobile-phone screens that would make Ted Williams go blind. 

A decade later, all that nonsense is finally making sense.

Telecommunications providers are marrying technologies like TV with the Internet, Verizon Wireless and other mobile operators are rolling out 4G data services with lightning speeds and Americans are enamored with devices like the iPhone.

It’s an exciting time to be a geek.