2000 - -  Years of preparation and billions of dollars result in the Y2K "Bug" being nothing more than a minor pest on January 1st. Mergers run rampart in the telecommunications industry as companies plan for the future and the Internet. Lucent Technologies announces it will "spin off" its enterprise solution group into a new company. Bell Atlantic and GTE announce that their new combined company will be named "Verizon" (derived from the latin for truth) thus moving the "Bell" name into its history. Cisco and NorTel networks jockey for position as leaders in voice and data communications and the Internet. Qwest divests itself of long distance companies in the US West service area in order to complete its purchase of US West. President Clinton requests that the "universal service" fee be increased to allow accommodation of Native American reservations and their technology needs. AT&T moves toward completion of its acquisition of MediaOne Communications. DSL becomes the new "hot service" for homes and small businesses accessing the Internet. The Federal Government rules against Microsoft Corporation - calls ring out for the organization to be divested into two seperate companies. The Federal Trade Commission recommends rejection of the MCI Worldcom and Sprint merger putting this mega-deal at jeopardy. The Supreme Court upholds the FCC "detariffing" section of the Telecom Act of 1996 - All non-dominant carriers must conduct this detariffing over the next seven months (May - December). Lucent Technologies divest itself of its enterprise systems division creating Avaya Communications. Worldcom announces itself intent to buy Intermedia. British Telecom and AT&T officially call off rumored merger talks as AT&T hits financial hard times. First AT&T and then MCI announce major "spin offs" of primarily their consumer long distance divisions. Verizon wins the recommendation of Massachusett regulators to offer long distance service in Massachusetts, approval by the FCC is expected in December. The year turns into a financial disaster for many so called "dot com" companies as venture capital and high stock prices dry up resulting in layoffs, bankruptcies and the nickname "dot bombs". Verizon withdraws its application to provide long distance service to Massachusetts residents and companies. DSL providers nationwide fall on hard times as provisioning and maintaining the service becomes too expensive resulting in companies like HarvardNet and Digital Broadband to discontinue DSL service. SBC pays a record $6.1 million fine for not meeting performance standards set as a condition of its merger with Ameritech.

2001 - - The telecom industry continues its nosedive as hints of a recession abound. Big names like Covad and PSINet entered Chapter 11. Fiber-optics suppliers hit new lows. JDS Uniphase declared the biggest one-year loss in corporate history — $51 billion — while Nortel lost $20 billion in one quarter and embattled Lucent announced more than 40,000 layoffs. PC sales took a prolonged dip for the first time since 1986 and Dell was the only one of the leading PC makers not to struggle, while Hewlett-Packard's merger with Compaq ran into troubles when investors questioned the rationale behind joining together two companies with dipping desktop sales. Apple Computer introduced its new operating system OS-X while Microsoft had their court-ordered breakup overturned in June, settled the antitrust case with the Department of Justice in October (although nine states are still contesting it), and launched their new operating system - Windows XP - later in the month. The original LECs (now known by such names as Verizon and Qwest) continued to make applications to offer long distance service gaining more state and FCC approvals along the way. Finally, the terrorist attack on New York and Washington D.C. on September 11th damaged a fragile telecom industry but also demonstrated the resiliency of our technology as telephone and data communication services were working within days (sometimes hours) of the attacks. Verizon continued to provide services despite the considerable damage to its West Street building. And telecommunications companies throughout the country - from cellular to long distance to ISPs - kept all of us informed of the horror, the grief and the heroism of the day.

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