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Why the AT&T and T-Mobile Merger Is Bad For Consumers
adeelarshad82 writes "AT&T recently announced that it will buy T-Mobile for $39 billion. If the transaction gets approved by the government and closes in a year as planned, it will create the nation's largest wireless carrier by far. While this is great news for both companies, analysts believe that it's an awful idea for end consumers for a number of different reasons — from obvious ones, like a rise in rates due to lower competition, to subtler ones, like more selective phone choices for consumers."
Where was that $39 billion when it came to putting up and maintaining signal towers? Where was that $39 billion when it came to customer service? Where was that $39 billion when it came to the outlandishly expensive service?
All this money, and what does AT&T do with it? It's like a slap in the face for their own customers.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
It is certainly bad for customers.
But its good for Verizon and others, because there are a lot of T-Mobile who are: "Anybody but AT&T".
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
This is where old Ma Bell ended up.
Colbert is going to have to update his take on AT&T
There is no real competition in the US mobile market, only the illusion of competition.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
P.S.
"AT&T's 700 Mhz spectrum" came from the selloff of TV channels 52 through 69. ATT, Verizon, and the FCC are pushing to selloff channels 25 and up, too, effectively killing free television (there would be one-half as many stations).
FREE magazine : http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prior/
AT&T shareholders just watched their management pay way too much for T-mobile. T-mobile and AT&T employees are both now extremely fearful for their jobs, as there is almost 100% overlap in most markets in everything but customer service call centers. This goes all the way up the management chains.
This is less like "joining forces" than conquering your neighbor by buying his mortgage from the bank for double the house's value, then throwing him and his kids and your wife out on the street.
It's ultimately not the FCC, but rather, the DOJ that would have to step in and stop it. So write them.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
They haven't denied any of the other mergers that became the current AT&T.
They didn't deny SBC when they wanted to offer long distance service either.
They're not going to deny this either.
I'm rather surprised they didn't buy Comcast.
But of course, they might try it even before this deal completes.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
A loan from JP Morgan
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/g7vzu/why_the_hell_does_att_have_25_billion_in_cash/
Go to the T-Mobile forum if you want to know how well this is flying with T-Mobile customers.
The subject should give you an indication.
I explicitly chose NOT to have anything to do with AT&T and now I am forced into it. Does that sound like free capitalism to you??
You freeze it, break it to pieces, and over a small amount of time it melts and re-forms itself to continue the assault.
Where's a vat of molten steel when you need it?
This would be one of the reasons why the DTV transition is happening world-wide, so governments can reassign the spectrum for other uses.
In the US, low power stations are still allowed to transmit, but they know they are on borrowed time, as the international date to end analog television signals is June 17, 2015.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
This does violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Why do you say having only one GSM carrier in the entire country wouldn't result in less or no competition?
GSM is the only network wherein your Iphone can talk and use data at the same time.
I for one am against any more consolidation among huge companies. We have had it in banks, supermarkets, phone companies, we don't need any more. Do you want there to be only one or two banks, one or two wireless carriers, one or two supermarkets, and that's it? If you don't like it you can just not buy any. I want more competition, not less. More companies duking it out so I have choice.
These wireless companies have spectrum licenses. They don't own those frequencies, they get to use them in the public interest.
Remember when AT&T bought Cingular? They sold off the old AT&T network and frequencies to Tmobile. They kept the better performing Cingular Wireless network. Why did they do that? They had to. The Justice Department wouldn't let them buy their competition unless they divested those assets. That's fair. MORE competition, not less.
AT&T and the baby bells were all separated out years ago in the AT&T Divestiture. Now, Pacbell turned into SBC which bought Bellsouth and others and finally bought their former parent AT&T, and whopee, they are all back together. It was a 25 year plan, they planned it all, the crooks.
Now they want to take away more customer choice.
Just say no. No to companies buying their competition. No to consolidations that limit competition. Especially where these companies have government licenses. It's just not right.
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That's not quite the case - a lot of the radios have hardware filters that can't be removed very easily - you'd be looking at desoldering surface-mount components and then replacing them with other versions...and then recertifying the entire thing to make sure you can still transmit without breaking FCC regulations (at least in the States.)
The OpenMoko FreeRunner came in two versions - 900/1800/1900, and 850/1800/1900. It is not possible to change frequencies, and almost the entire phone is open to modification by the user.