Las Vegas will be awash with new types of gamblers this week - telco bigwigs looking to find some direction for their next billion dollar move. As expected, the rumors have already begun to swirl with talks of AT&T acquiring BellSouth, a local phone conglomerate, for the low low price of $67 billion. Billion, people. Nine zeros.

Another hot topic at this year’s TelecomNext will be the major phone companies’ push to get into the TV market. Over the past couple of years, cable companies have made a significant dent in the home phone market thanks to bundled deals (cable + internet + phone), and now the phone companies are fighting back. In fact, this movement is already underway in some US markets:

Verizon, which is building a fiber-to-the-home network, is already serving communities in several states, including Texas and Florida, with its TV service. AT&T has also begun rolling out its TV service in certain areas over its upgraded network.

via CNET

Obviously, the lines between different methods of data delivery are becoming more blurred by the day. Hopefully, we’ll know a bit more about the direction the major players intend to take as the proceedings at TelecomNext unfold.