Biggest Community on the Planet

So think about it: at&t says all members of its community, wireline or wireless, can call each other "on network," for free. Wireless users apparently must also reside within the wireline service territory, and also have a wireline account with at&t, but the implications still are huge.

We will leave for the moment the issue of whether this actually will work. If it works, at&t creates the world's biggest "friends and family" network. If Verizon and Qwest somehow wind up peered with at&t, most "callers" within the United States will be part of a single, peered network with free calling on the entire network.

Which changes he competitive landscape prety dramatically, don't you think? Whatever version of Metcalfe's Law you subscribe to (the value of the network increases as the square of the number of nodes, the value of the network increases less than that, or more than that), this is a huge deal.

Consider that a global, tier one carrier calls its customer base a "community." Consider that the deal essentially eliminates the distinction between TDM and IP calling. Consider that the deal could put a huge damper on POTS line defections in territory, and somewhat complicates the "lower price" positioning of most VoIP offerings. at&t just has made the value of an in-region POTS line much more valuable.