John Donovan, AT&T’s chief technology officer, said the company might string fiber optic cables to its customers’ homes in the future. But he argues that it was a smarter choice to try to get as much life out of the copper wire as possible, betting the cost of fiber will drop over time.

“The last thing we want to do is overdeploy fixed capacity into the ground where there is no recovery for being wrong by putting in too much,” he said. “The ideal way to deploy technology is on the last day as fast as possible, because it gets more capable and cheaper every day.”

[O]ther casual-restaurant operators have been suffering from slowing customer traffic, increased commodity costs and an overcrowded market. Several chains in the space have filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks.

Mitsubishi, Japan's largest bank, raised its bid for the third of the company it doesn't own by 17 percent, valuing the San Francisco-based lender at $10.1 billion. UnionBanCal's board will recommend the $73.50-a-share offer to shareholders, the companies said today in a statement.

The deal is the biggest announced takeover of a U.S. bank this year. The lender, with 330 branches in California, Washington and Oregon, reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates after shunning subprime lending and avoiding the worst of the U.S. mortgage market collapse.

William Greene, airline analyst for Morgan Stanley, believes that the recent downturn in oil prices is the "tipping point" that will save the airline industry. He said a continued plunge in oil prices could return the industry to profitability by 2009.