One night a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t sleep. I was imagining what William McGowan would be thinking today had he lived to see what finally became of MCI Corp., the company he founded in 1968 that essentially broke apart the AT&T telephone monopoly — and then waged a protracted regulatory war with its local phone spinoffs, the Baby Bells. Suddenly, the wind blew the shutters apart and knocked the phone from its cradle, and there before me appeared a rumpled but jovial-looking businessman. It was none other than McGowan himself. He seemed a little unsteady on his feet.

Are you okay? You look a little disoriented.

“I’m dizzy. Like I’ve been spinning.”

Um, that’s entirely likely, considering what became of your company.

“Well, that’s why I’m here. I negotiated a clause with the Big Guy that allows me to come and check in whenever there’s a change in control at MCI.”

Wow, you’re still one hell of a negotiator. Well, I hate to break this to you, but MCI is being bought after a huge bidding war between Qwest and Verizon. Verizon ultimately won out.

“Fabulous! I haven’t heard of those companies, which means there really must be competition now in the phone business. I don’t mind that MCI is being bought again. I came back to visit when that Worldcom guy, Bernie something — the cowboy from Mississippi — bought MCI in 1997. He seemed like a smart fellow, a scrappy entrepreneur like me.”

I think you’d better sit down. I hate to break this to you, but Bernie Ebbers sort of destroyed Worldcom-MCI. In March, he was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and faking regulatory filings. He faces as many as 85 years in jail. Shareholders lost about $11 billion. Today, your company is a shadow of its former greatness, though they did change the name back to MCI in hopes of recapturing some of your spirit.

“And now you say MCI is being bought by, what was it, Horizon?”

It’s “Verizon.” And that’s the other thing: Verizon is Bell Atlantic. They changed the name in 2000. MCI is about to be owned by a Bell.

McGowan glared at me, then looked upward — as if for an answer.

“The evil Bell Atlantic is buying my beloved MCI? That’s unthinkable! I just knew those Bells would end up running the table. And what became of AT&T, which we dismantled in the courts and then fairly competed against in the long-distance market? I suppose you’re going to tell me some other Baby Bell bought its own mother?”

Well, actually, yes. SBC Communications Corp. is about to get regulatory approval to buy AT&T, or what’s left of it.

“Unbelievable. This isn’t the way it was supposed to work out. There was supposed to be competition in the phone business. Now everything is owned by the same old phone monopolies!”

Well, yes and no. It’s complicated, but here’s what happened: The voice business is no longer such a big deal. Fiber-optic cables are everywhere, even into my neighborhood, so the cost of calling has plummeted. And the Internet. . . . You know the Internet, right?

“Know it? MCI was there at the beginning. And don’t forget we had the first big commercial e-mail system, MCI Mail, in 1983.”

Of course. Well, that’s how more and more voice calls travel these days: not through Verizon’s bulky old phone switches, but in little packets of data over the Internet. People don’t even care whose networks the data travels through. So, for Verizon and SBC, the game is all about owning the networks and selling access to others.

“Yeah, but the Bells still collect all the monopoly rents!”

Maybe so, if you still think copper lines are the only way to the Internet. But don’t forget cable TV, cell phones and satellite. Today, single companies do own — and, yes, control — specific delivery methods into homes and businesses. But they face competition from one other. Verizon’s even going to offer TV programs soon.”

“So, I guess what it all comes down to, in the end, is that the winners are the ones who own the most pipes and towers.”

Exactly.

“So, what about all the days, and money, we spent lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission? Was it all a waste?”

I prefer to think not. I’d like to think your spirit kind of affected everyone, gave them a vision of how things should be. It’s so hard to put wires into every home and business, which is why the companies that own those wires do have natural monopolistic advantages. But they aren’t as all-powerful as you thought, because phone customers can now easily go elsewhere for phone service — or they can go to their phone provider for television.

That seemed to calm him. He began to rise toward the window, but then turned back to me.

“One last thing. How much did Verizon agree to pay for MCI?”

They’re paying $8.5 billion. Just think: When you died in 1992, MCI was valued at $10 billion. And Ebbers paid $37 billion in 1997.

“So if Ebbers ruined the company, and if fiber cables are everywhere, why would Verizon want to get into a bidding war and end up paying even that much?”

You’ve stumped me there. But come ask me in a few more years. Things never seem to go the way you think they will in this industry.

Mike Mills is CQ’s executive editor for electronic publishing. Next week’s CQ Roundtable: Courts & the Law, by Kenneth Jost.