The state of Washington approved the Verizon-MCI merger last week, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for the companies.

BellSouth said that it hasn’t heard from 49,000 customers in Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes after Hurricane Katrina.

Cingular Wireless has introduced new international calling and roaming plans for people who call or travel out of the country frequently.

By now most everyone has heard of NSA’s special collection program, where it intercepts and processes virtually all communications entering and leaving the U.S., ostensibly looking for terrorist activity. Many of you read in the New York Times that the agency is doing massive data mining. That’s all true, but how is the NSA moving all that data around?

AT&T has donated 15,000 prepaid phone cards, each with 20 minutes of calling time, to troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. In addition, the company announced it would assist active duty military stationed stateside with free telephone installation.

In a unanimous decision, the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday voted to remove rate restrictions from most of Verizon’s residential services in the state.

Call Block, also known as Call Screening or sometimes Call Rejection, allows you to block incoming calls from specific telephone numbers.

New customers who sign up for SBC Yahoo! DSL between now and December 31 can receive a free $100 Visa gift card.

BellSouth is replacing damaged copper cables in New Orleans with fiber-optic cables, even though the replacement work will mean that many customers could be without telephone service for several months.

AT&T and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Consumer Protection settled a lawsuit in which the state alleged the company illegally charged some 49,000 Pennsylvania residents a monthly fee for long distance service they did not have.