• NPR Morning Edition, Wednesday, July 1, 2009 10:40 AM

Can you imagine a world without a surfeit of advertising cajoling you to change your mobile phone service? Could you have imagined a world without a surfeit of ads cajoling you to change your landline long-distance service? Well, the days when Ma Bell's pitchman Cliff Robertson wooed customers back from Sprint and MCI are dead air now.

No more telemarketing either, and even online marketing is decidedly low key. "On AT&T's Web site you'll be hard-pressed to figure out the company even offers long-distance telephone service," reports Jeff Brady. Analyst Jeff Kagan says the demise began after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 put regional Baby Bells in direct competition with their former parent. They won.

Long-distance revenues, which peaked in 2000 at $109 billion, were down to $58 billion by 2007. Now there's lots of talk about bundling various products -- TV, Internet, phone and cellular service -- into one package, and cable companies have entered the fray.

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