• The New York Times, Tuesday, March 27, 2007 11:30 AM

Edward E. Whitacre Jr. has transformed Southwestern Bell--the smallest of the seven Bells when he took it over in 1990--into SBC, the telecommunications giant that swallowed AT&T and took its name. He's done it by gobbling up a number of other carriers over the years. The drama for AT&T is what happens now that it has all these pieces in place.

In the case of TV, its "Uverse" strategy entails delivering programming over the Internet, so-called IPTV. But the service has been plagued by delays and glitches and takes, on average, more than six hours to install. The TV initiative is tied closely with AT&T's strategy for deploying a high-speed fiber optic network, which will deliver the programming. That strategy is called "fiber to the node" because it brings high-speed fiber optic cables within 4,000 feet of individual homes. Then it delivers the last part of the digital signal over conventional copper wires.

That strategy stands in contrast to "fiber to the premises," a strategy being pursued by Verizon, which connects fiber optic cables directly to individual residences. The question of which strategy is ultimately superior depends on how much bandwidth customers need in the future.

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