Months back I said here in the blog and in interviews with members of the media that the SBC name goes away and AT&T becomes the new name for many reasons, not the least is tradition and history. But the real reason is on a global basis AT&T carries a lot more clout and recognition than SBC ever could.
Seems I was right.
So what's next? Global imperialism. My guess is after the merger and a smoothing out of the ranks through retirements and layoff, the newly merged AT&T/SBC begins looking globally.