Beginning July 21, residential basic telephone rates for customers in many Missouri cities will rise by from $0.93 to $1.26 per month, an AT&T spokesman said.

AT&T, which recently completed a merger with SBC Communications, announced Monday a $67 billion deal to purchase BellSouth, in an all-stock transaction.

Customers of AT&T local telephone service in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware will see a new line item on their bills beginning after March 26, the “local connectivity charge” of $2.75 per month, or $3.50 for New Jersey customers.

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.

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.

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.

AT&T Inc., which recently merged with SBC Communications, said on Sunday it had reached an agreement for a new contract with the union representing some 11,000 employees of the pre-merger AT&T.

Back in 1898, Congress passed a levy of one cent per telephone call to help raise money to fund the Spanish-American War. The tax, while temporary, has been on-again, off-again throughout the years, and was reinstated in 1990. Now it is three percent (3%) of your overall telephone bill. And some people are refusing to pay it.