Anyone remember back in 1999 when the old AT&T purchased the TCI and MediaOne cable companies to form AT&T Broadband? And how they subsequently ran the operation in to the ground? I am not sure that this would be a good thing, in spite of the fact that this is not the same AT&T that did that deal 8 years ago.
And in turn it also seemed to run AT&T into the ground, allowing SBC to buy them (but taking the AT&T name instead of keeping SBC) at a seemingly cheap price.