AT&T Microsoft: Parallel's With "The End"?

Two non-rail business events occurred this past week that I believe are analogus to "The End' for railroad operated intercity passenger service, which to me occurred during Third Quarter 1967.

The most significant event is the announcement that AT&T Corporation will no longer solicit for consumer Long Distance telecommunication business. While reports have confirmed that they will continue to provide LD service to existing accounts, they in effect have said no more new household business.

Folks, this is Ma Bell we are talking about - she has publicly said that she doesent care if I "reach out and touch Aunt Agnes" anymore.

Obviously, the railroads said officially on A-Day, they no longer wanted my business, even though I believe the effective date was actually during Autumn 1967, when using the excuse of loss of contracts to handle first Class US Mail, the railroads "wanted out-the quicker the better".

The second event is probably more difficult with which to draw analogies. and that is Microsoft Corporations to disinvest some 10% of its Market capitalization directly to its shareholders and to disinvest even further through repurchase of its stock on the open market. While obviously Microsoft isn't going anywhere anytime soon, it certainly means that the software development industry is entering a new phase by telling shareholders; "We are out of options to continue to effectively reinvest your money. Therefore, do it yourself".

Here are links to material appearing in Today's New York Times:

ATT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/23/busin ... 3adco.html
Microsoft (Opinion):
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/23/opinion/23carr.html

Thoughts, if any, regarding passenger rail, anyone?

Possibly the following quotation from a lead article in Today's Wall Street Journal may spark some discussion with this topic:

"Heavy Toll
Phone Industry Faces Upheaval
As Ways of Calling Change Fast

Cable, Internet, Wireless Hurt
The Value of Old Networks,
Threaten a Business Model
Echoes of Railroads' Ordeal

In just over a year, one out of every eight households in the Portland, Maine, region has signed up for Internet phone service supplied by Time Warner Inc.'s cable-television unit. For many, the phone jack in the wall that connects to the phone company's network is now just a useless hole. Time Warner is rolling out the same service to millions of consumers nationwide.

Some compare this accelerating shift to the threat faced by railroads in the boom years following World War II. As the nation embraced the automobile and airplane, railroad officials worried about the new technologies that circumvented their network of tracks.

"The thought was, if you invested in old technology and made it look better and run faster, it would save the day," says Jim McClellan, a retired senior executive with Norfolk Southern Corp. It didn't work, and long-distance passenger rail service virtually disappeared in much of the country.

Two points of interest, first, I did have the occasion to meet Mr. McClellan 'along the way" , say circa 1975. Secondly, I know several "post-college' younger people, both within and without my own family, who have yet to subscribe to a hard wired land telephone line.

Cell Phones, Cable TV, and High Speed Internet are all "of course' part of their "necessities' in this life.