Could the BellSouth/AT&T; merger spur competition?

With the AT&T/BellSouth merger on the horizon, many consumer groups have expressed concern that the merger will lessen competition, as you can read about in my post, Opposition to AT&T/BellSouth deal. But some people actually believe the opposite, that the merger between BellSouth and AT&T might spur competition, especially between cable providers  and phone providers that are entering the video market. They also believe that eventually it might spur a price war in broadband prices, which you can read about in this article.