It won't happen, the regulatory hurdles are too great. Also, maintaining physical and geographically disparate infrastructure is expensive. An infrastructure company is "bound to the land" and therefore more politically (regulatory or otherwise) vulnerable.
But is there any company over the last 100 years you would rather have owned, aside from maybe Standard Oil? I agree with the majority of threads that it seems unlikely, for a lot of good reasons. Just might be reward for the risk going forward.
Being AT&T is no picnic.