I agree the Nxnex/Bell Atlantic merger might have been good. I also agree that the GTE/Bell Atlantic merger was a big error, in more then money. They were two different companies.
I don't know about Bell Atlantic, but GTE had bundles of money from selling it non telecom groups as well as merging it AE unit with AT&T. Many people said the GTD5 was not as good as other machines of its kind. It was made to work in many different projects where others would not and it was a log more forgiving then others also.
GTE's merger with Contel was ok at the best, but after the merger they dumped a lot of the Contel areas as some GTE areas. After the GTE/Bell Atlantic areas a lot more were dumped, and the latest was the Hawaiian Telco sales was a big error, it was one of the best run of the system and made lots of money since it was located midway between the US and Japan.
I retired from GTE a few years before the merger and am glad I did. I have d> No.
I sure h> I strongly suspect that Verizon is just trying to elevate the price
I did contact work for USWest as they were being bought by Qwest; the whole area was a mess since no one know what was going to happen.