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Justice Dept. Files Antitrust Complaint Against AT&T and T-Mobile Merger
Hitting the front page for the first time, AngryDeuce writes with a piece of exciting news hot off the news wire. From the article: "The Justice Department is blocking AT&T's $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA, saying the acquisition of the No. 4 wireless carrier in the country by No. 2 AT&T would reduce competition and raise prices. The deal has faced tough opposition from consumer groups and No. 3 carrier Sprint since it was announced in March."
The DOJ has released a full statement on their decision to file the antitrust suit, and AT&T has drafted a response. So much for AT&T's paltry promise of bringing 5000 unskilled call center jobs back to the U.S. if the merger were approved. Competition may yet live!
Sure, they'd hire 5000 new people, but how many would they fire from T-mobile in the process?
My money is on a good deal more than 5000.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
"We are surprised and disappointed by today's action, particularly since we have met repeatedly with the Department of Justice and there was no indication from the DOJ that this action was being contemplated. We plan to ask for an expedited hearing so the enormous benefits of this merger can be fully reviewed. The DOJ has the burden of proving alleged anti-competitive affects and we intend to vigorously contest this matter in court. We remain confident that this merger is in the best interest of consumers and our country, and the facts will prevail in court."
FWIW, I think the Justice Department did right today. As a T-Mobile customer, I am very happy. Here's hoping that the justice department succeeds.
I thought I would never live to see the day that a governmental department would block yet alone sue to block the merger of two mega corps.
If I wanted AT&T as my service provider I would have subscribed to their service.
If you have to buy customers perhaps it's time to change ones business strategy.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Their own internal documents show AT&T does not need T-Mobile to expand service, and that AT&T intends to raise prices. This is a deal that should not happen. At last the DOJ does something right on the merger front.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
Sure they could afford to bring back a paltry 5000 jobs.
They would be eliminating one of their main competitors, laying off way more than 5000 (more skilled!) workers, and opening the way to raising their prices by grabbing a customer base with even less choice and jacking up their rates.
Nice to see government doing what its supposed to do for a change.
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A failure of the deal puts T-Mobile in a difficult position. It's struggling to compete with the larger carriers, and owner Deutsche Telekom AG has said it's not willing to invest more in the venture.
However, AT&T has promised T-Mobile $3 billion in cash if the deal doesn't go through, plus spectrum rights and agreements that could be worth billions more.
Huh? If the deal DOESN'T go through, AT&T is giving T-Mobile money and spectrum?
I don't get it.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Do not welcome our AT&T overlord masters.
I like T-Mobile!
I had AT&T and paid dearly to escape their evil clutches. I did not want to go back. Yeah for the DOJ! I hope they win.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
Yay!
Now lets hope they don't negotiate a deal (or worse yet, that the Department of Justice doesn't flat out lose the case).
Ma Bell was broken up by the DOJ because it was a serious problem in the marketplace. These telecom corps are essentially trying (deliberately or not) to reassemble back into a new incarnation of it. AT&T has already reclaimed 4 of it's DOJ separated pieces and a good section of the internet service. Now they want mobile too?
Um... If I was the DOJ and knew my history of the department big warning bells would be ringing in my mind. I'm not surprised they've opposed this. Personally, I think the current telecom leaders are already pushing the limit given how much control they have over a lot of television, communications, and mobile services.
Not all slashdotters believe the same thing. For instance I think libertarians are either woefully naive, liars, or morons. I applaud the government taking action to ensure the cellular service market does not become a duopoly.
The HTC Evo 4G and Evo 3D are both great phones (3D gimmicking asside). Just because they aren't iPhones, doesn't mean they aren't good. And yes Sprint has poor coverage in a few areas, but they have amazing coverage in others. Not to mention you can't beat the price. I left AT&T and my iPhone after AT&T decided they could alter the way they applied my corporate discount in the middle of my contract. Even after paying an early termination fee, I was saving $30 a month with Sprint in just a few months.
Oh yeah and I have a hell of a lot fewer dropped calls with Sprint, too.And no more "The network is busy" when trying to make a phone call.
Every once in a while, the Feds get it right. From the article,
"Moreover, the department said that AT&T could obtain substantially the same network enhancements that it claims will come from the transaction if it simply invested in its own network without eliminating a close competitor."
We have been saying this here forever. AT&T et al need to invest in their own infrastructure. It is about time that the Federal government is on board with that.
As a T-Mobile customer since 1999 (when they were Voice Stream) I couldn't be happier. I want no part of AT&T.
I'm actually sort of expecting a Sprint and T-Mobile combination. I've been happy with Sprint via Virgin Mobile but would prefer them to move to GSM and amp up their offerings, coverage, and user base.
I was grudgingly considering a move to AT&T for an iPhone, primarily because my wife uses them so I could get the family rate. But with the recent iPhone Sprint rumors I've decided to wait; I expect that with Sprint I can pay just a little more for the same service and not have to give any money to warrantless-wiretappers.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
I am pleasantly surprised to hear this news.
I can't help but wonder what lead to this; if this was a matter of AT&T not making contributions to the right politicians, not being as connected as a company like GE, or not being in an industry like finance or healthcare. I'd say Bank of America gets away with far worse and not only are they not investigated but they're rewarded with bailouts. Of course, this all could be for show and the merger will end up going through anyway.
I think it reflects a sad state of affairs in this country that we would even be surprised by this turn of events and that I'm inclined to assume the worst.
I never made such a claim. Again you act as though as all slashdot posts come from one person.
The government is not coming for me, as far as I can tell, and if it did I would defend myself in court. Government is needed and all functional societies have one.
As an Android user from just about the start I can hardly complain about T-Mo phone selection.
Their coverage is clearly lesser than their peers, but I rarely run into a dead zone - mainly in the mountains/etc. Just about anywhere I go I not only have coverage, but 4G coverage and I reliably get multi-Mbps transfer rates.
I really don't need to see any improvements with T-Mo. I really was hoping the merger would fall through because T-Mo has a history of supporting Nexus phones and the non-Nexus phones tend to be easy to root, and ATT is the complete opposite. T-Mo also has lower rates, softer caps, and fewer (but not non-existent) predatory practices.
I don't know if this would work out all that well as Sprint is CDMA and T-Mobile is GSM. The last time a CDMA service was merged with GSM was when Cingular bought out AT&T and then shut down their CDMA service. My sister was on AT&T then. Her service went from being the most reliable to horrible when that happened.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Sprint does offer unlimited data on their wimax ("4G"). I'm using it right now. It's pretty decent so long as you're not moving. Using it on the train is a bit painful, especially with the spotty coverage on the VA side of DC metro.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
Have gnu, will travel.
Sprint and T-Mobile? They don't even use the same technologies! That makes about as much sense as an AMD / ATi merger! Oh, wait...
On the bright side, at least the new Intel server motherboards stopped coming with those horribly crappy on-board ATi ES1000 video chips, replaced with some Matrox 200 descendant that's refreshingly less crappy. On the bright side for the telecom industry... hmm, I don't see any bright side for any of the telecom mergers.
As soon as their checks clear.
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
other cell carriers have a lot more to do with it than common sense in the government. I fear this "outbreak" you speak of is at best, overly exaggerated.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Y'know for the past year or so I've been wondering how AT&T was ballsy enough to drop unlimited data and tiered text messaging for users, not to mention their tethering plan scam, when they should have been keeping up appearances to the DOJ that they actually care about their customers. Looks like that was a bad idea!
A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
I'm sure it didn't help Microsoft any, but I didn't mind when bing sent me a check last year for buying a nice camera on tigerdirect. I'll gladly encourage them to continue using a business model that involves giving me free money!
And honestly, it seems to be working wonders for Firefox with google paying big bucks to be the default search engine--and unlike MS, I'm sure google is actually getting a positive return on that investment.
Just because the merger is not approved does not mean that T-Mobile will continue as a viable alternative. My understanding was that the reason that Deutsche Telekom was selling T-Mobile was because they were not making enough return on investment.
The first article says that AT&T will give T-Mobile $3 billion if the deal does not go through, but that is not the case. AT&T will give Deutsche Telekom $3 billion if the deal does not go through. There is no reason to suppose that Deutsche Telekom will pass that money on to T-Mobile.
Are we any better off if T-Mobile goes bankrupt? I do not know if that will happen if this deal does not go through, but there is reason to suspect that it might.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
"Should regulators reject the deal, which would create the biggest U.S. wireless carrier, AT&T would have to pay Deutsche Telekom $3 billion in cash. It would also provide T-Mobile USA with wireless spectrum in some regions and reduced charges for calls into AT&T’s network, for a total package valued at as much as $7 billion, Deutsche Telekom said this month."
So T-Mobile would get $3 billion in cash, more spectrum, and reduced fees for calls going through AT&T's network. This would seem to be good news for T-Mobile, as all of these things would make them more competitive.
I'm not sure where you are getting your info. I migrated from AT&T because they are a $hit carrier with terrible coverage and even worse customer service. They hooked in suckers with the iPhone and threw everything else worthwhile out the window. If you weren't willing to swallow the warm jobsy load AT&T was offering on the shiny side of the hardware equation you were basically f*cked for a good phone and even more on data and service.
T-mobile has everything hardware wise but the iPhone plus they have far superior pricing, service, and coverage. If you're wanting something shiny and crappy, you can go to VZW to get your iPhone and still avoid AT&T.
AT&T has nothing on it's competition besides and economic advantage which is steadily shrinking. I personally know 10 people that jumped their ship as soon as VZW started offering an iPhone and that is all about AT&T being a crap carrier and generally a bunch of assholes.
I'm not going to contest that WiMax is garbage, there is no doubt about that, but everyone I know on Sprint is way more satisfied than anyone on AT&T.
I got here through a series of tubes
VZW and AT&T are trying to dump their unlimited customers to sprint. if sprint does end up taking a lot of them on we will have to see how long they can take unlimited data.
I'd argue that prior to the last few years where smart phones have become incredibly popular, Sprint tended to offer some of the best/most advanced phones available (other carriers did as well), so your argument that they offered "the worst phones" seems completely wrong to me.
it's not GSM but UMTS/HSPA/HSUPA/HSPDA and other new modulations. UMTS was a few years ago and the modulations have changed and service is a lot better.
Sprint customer service pissed me off, but the coverage around here is easily the best in my experience. I rarely if ever had a dropped call and I was getting bars where none of the other folks were getting bars. Considering I'm living in Seattle and there are portions of the city without any coverage from AT&T at all, I think it bodes poorly if the DoJ ultimately backs off.
Jobs shouldn't be the point of this in any way. If you think the government should force companies to hire more people you've fallen for the broken window fallacy. It's not about efficiency it's about competition. This action is supposed to improve service and lower prices by allowing other companies to compete. And guess what? If another company can compete by farming out 50% of its support to India and still sell phone services that's the way it's supposed to go.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Wrong.
AT&T Wireless had a TDMA and GSM network before Cingular. AT&T went from AMPS to TDMA to GSM. You might be thinking of US Cellular and Cricket when customer regions were swapped due to divestments. I was there.
The ideal outcome is that Sprint dumps it's CDMA network post-haste and adopts the GSM-LTE standards. Reason? iPhone. T-Mobile gets the iPhone next. The entire reason Sprint is in such a hurting position right now is because they have no plan, and are seeking dead-end solutions like Clearwire.
The DOJ, should they bring down the ban-hammer, should tell the American cellular providers to adopt a common network (LTE next generation), all phones are to be carrier unlocked and usable on any network. If they want competition, they need to break down the anti-competitive barriers first. Incompatible frequencies, technologies and subsidies are what keeps the mobile phone carriers customers from churn.
The one thing Sprint could possibly bring to the table in a merger with T-Mobile if they didn't completely botch it is (theoretical) compatibility with international UMTS frequencies.
International UMTS uses 1900MHz for uplink, and 2100MHz for downlink (give or take a few MHz)
T-Mobile bought 1700 & 2100Mhz licenses during the AWS auction. They have very little 1900MHz spectrum, and it's all used by GSM voice and 2/2.5G data.
With a little creativity, Sprint could start repurposing 1900MHz spectrum currently used for EVDO to UMTS uplinks, and start shipping phones like the ones used in Canada that use CDMA for voice, but UMTS for 3G data. There wouldn't be any compatibility problem with pre-existing T-Mobile UMTS phones, because AFAIK, every UMTS phone ever sold by T-Mobile can do 1900/2100 UMTS in addition to 1700/2100 UMTS. There might be some temporary bandwidth crunches for EVDO, but if they got their act together quickly and shifted all new Android phones to 1900/2100 UMTS (falling back to 1900MHz EVDO only where 1900/2100 UMTS didn't exist), and simultaneously improved their 4G network options, the problem would largely solve itself within a year or two as heavy data users dumped their old phones and bought new ones within a year or two anyway.
The problem is, Sprint completely fucked up the merger with Nextel, which kind of casts doubt on their ability to merge a 1900MHz CDMA2000 network with a 1900MHz legacy GSM network, a 1700/2100MHz UMTS network, and a 2.6GHz WiMax (soon to be LTE) network. If they could manage to avoid completely screwing up T-Mobile's existing network in the process, it would put SprinT-mobile in a unique position among American carriers -- they'd be the one carrier capable of providing UMTS on international frequencies within the United States. For that reason, I'd prefer they both remain separate. But if anyone has to merge, Sprint and T-Mobile would probably be the least of all evils. Especially if Google ended up buying both of them to keep Sprint from physically screwing up T-mobile's network along the way.
I agree fully. I made a similar transition from Verizon to Sprint after seeing the absurd charges Verizon levels on texting and data plans, as well as their lack of any decent HTC Android phones. Yes, Verizon has some great voice plans, but my wife and I use our phones for far more than voice calls, now. I made up my early termination fee within a few months, and have been saving $50 per month from there on out.
The tradeoff? Urban coverage for rural coverage. With Verizon, I had great data coverage in the middle of the Great Basin, but with Sprint I actually have coverage in my office! For me, at least, the latter is a bit more useful.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
I was with Virgin Mobile for five years, but initiated the process to port my number to Google yesterday due to my office now providing me with an iPhone. Wife is going to drop her Verizon dumbphone Real Soon Now in favor of a VM plan and Android phone.
If VM could step it up on the phone side of things (and this hot Motorola they offer now is moving in the right direction) I'd be hard-pressed to recommend any other service. $35/month for 300m and "unlimited" data/texting? Hells to the yes.
The pain was excruciating and the scarring is likely permanent, but that just means it's working.
I'm a current T-Mobile customer with 2 cell phones on a single plan (one for me and one for my wife). After years of horrible customer service experiences, sub-par network service and, of course, after being psychologically sick of giving a company money that was involved with wholesale illegal wiretapping, we canceled our 2 cell phones, DSL service, and home landline (all AT&T).
We went to T-Mobile because they were one of the only other companies left. They were "new" to us, a fresh company with young motivated employees that actually sounded genuinely glad to help you. We were so happy with them.
When we heard about the pending merger with AT&T, we immediately started looking around. We haven't switched yet, but as soon as the merger was complete we would have broken our contract (we were pretty sure there would be something we could say about not paying an early cancellation fee since a merger wasn't in our contract). Over the past few months, we noticed little things start happening with our account (which may or may not be related to the merger, yet we never experienced it before the word was out). Extra bill charges, randomly having our account turn on Internet access on my wife's cell phone without us asking for it (and them charging us $30/month for it), and even when we called them, the vibrance in their voices were completely gone. I might be sounding wishy-washy about the customer service enthusiasm, but seriously. It was a DRAMATIC change. It already seemed like the call centers were moved to AT&T.
I really hope this thing is blocked. I want to stick with T-Mobile. I want to give my money to a company that isn't involved with an enormous constitutional rights violation. I want to be able to choose. I don't want another Ma Bell.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Although Sprint bought Nextel and they use(d) different technologies. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_Nextel
I think it would be great if Sprint bought T-Mobil (though I don't think they have the cash to do so), then they'd have access GSM as well.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
T-Mo has a good phone selection this year and Sprint is getting better as well but Apple killed them with the iphone
Agreed. I like my Android, but I have one in part because I'm a Linux user: I don't have a Mac or Windows PC at home to run iTunes (just managing an iPod is labor enough). We're all/mostly geeks here, but among the unwashed masses, the iPhone dominates. So long as a carrier can't offer an iPhone, that carrier is doomed to a distant 3rd place behind AT&T and Verizon.
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
I'm pretty sure Nextel was iDEN, not GSM.
this is my sig
Sprint is the only major carrier left that offers unlimited data plans.
And as for crappy phones, I quite like my Epic 4G (although I'm still waiting for Gingerbread before I root it). I've heard rumor that the iPhone 5 will be dual band (GSM and CDMA) and that it is coming to Sprint in October.
Nextel used IDEN which is not GSM. It uses SIM cards, but it is an incompatible standard.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
I put my girlfriend in a pre-paid T-Moblie plan about a month ago, long after the announcement.
Here's proof: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/
Um, can I just point out that this does not mean the deal is automatically blocked?
The summary is wrong in stating that DoJ is "blocking the deal." They can't do that. All they can do is go to court and ask for an injunction, and the court may or may not grant one based on what DoJ presents to it.
So, it's not time to celebrate or mourn yet.
And yet ATT is still outselling Verizon in the Iphone department, and still has a higher new customer rate Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) said it activated 2.3 million iPhones in the second quarter, far fewer than the 3.6 million AT&T (T, Fortune 500) activated over the same three-month period From: http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/22/technology/att_verizon_iphone/index.htm
~~"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." ~~Dennis Miller
This is just stupid. We WANT AT&T and T-mobile to merge because having one carrier maintain all the GSM infrastructure and manage that spectrum is simply more efficient.
What the government needs to regulate is consumer's access to the competitive market. Require all phones to come with both GSM and CDMA radios (or have a cheap, replaceable part to do so) and be compatible with all networks. Then allow consumers to get out of their contracts if they find a minimum data speeds or voice quality isn't met. The markets will take it from there.
Keep in mind Sprint has a "new" CEO. I could see Hesse leading Sprint through a smooth merger.
The Sprint / Nextel merger was around 2004 / 2005, and Hesse took lead in 2007. Hesse was also with AT&T for a long ass time (25 years I think), and started out as a intern. I think Hesse brings a LOT of insight (what AT&T did right / wrong) from his time at AT&T.
How many big company CEOs actually put themselves in the commercials? Shows me he is personally invested in the success of Sprint.
So by that logic, Justin Bieber is great because he's sold a lot of records. I'm not saying VZW is a more profitable or larger company than AT&T I'm just saying in my experience they don't suck as bad as AT&T and my experience and evidence I have witnessed supports my conclusion.
I got here through a series of tubes
True, but iDEN was basically eGSM(or GSM+, if you'd like)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Digital_Enhanced_Network#Hardware
not sure how easily it would convert to real GSM, but to say iDEN is not GSM is a bit like saying hybrids are not ICE vehicles. Partly true, partly not.
Not to be jaded but the DoJ is ultimately an extension of the President. The primary motivation here is political. The President has seen that this move is incredibly unpopular and has remained so for an extended period of time so he's told the Attorney General to move to block it, or at least be seen to do so. This gets him great press and lets him tout that he fights for the masses not just the Rich ("like the Republicans" at least implied).
I completely support blocking the merger but I don't for one second trust the base motivations of those involved.
Also for those of you talking about the 5,000 jobs AT&T has promised to return to the US you might want to look into how many jobs they off shored first. AT&T is starting to realize that off shoring is no longer as economically feasible as it once was and creates significant discontent with the customers, this was likely coming regardless of the merger's success. That would also be why many corporate support centers are still in the US and the consumer support has primarily been off shored. If AT&T wants to make a splash they can promise to move ALL off shored jobs back to the US.
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
The 2G service is GSM.
Mergers are also good for the shareholders of the taken over company, as the acquiring company has to pay over the odds to buy it.
AT&T has nothing on it's competition besides and economic advantage which is steadily shrinking You say they are shrinking and i am calling you out on that BS line. I know people who are on sprint that cant wait for their contract to end to jump ship straight out for the lies from customer service
~~"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." ~~Dennis Miller
I've already seen rants about the "free market" on other sites.
Here is something that people need to know: Adam Smith 1) didn't figure huge corporations into his thinking because he thought they could never be a force in the marketplace and 2) didn't believe that monopolies were a good thing so would probably not be hostile to breaking them up for the good of the market.
People that spout about the free market solving ALL problems are believers in faith-based economics...
Anyone who tries to turn Adam Smith into a libertarian, Austrian economist or objectivist have never read Adam Smith.
One glorious day mobile pricing will be based entirely on bandwidth usage. Text messaging will be- for all intents and purposes- free, as the associated bandwidth costs carriers practically nil. Nobody will be punished for tethering their computer to their phone- data is data, however it gets consumed. You'll be able to use any phone/broadband modem/etc which adheres to standards with any carrier, and applications for your phone etc won't be under carrier control at all (goodbye to paying monthly fees for software which should be built in). Carriers will have to compete on price, and enough carriers will have coverage in any given area that prices will be much less painful (especially for light-bandwidth users)- they will better reflect the cost of providing service rather than the demands of monopoly profits.
Wireless coverage in Europe is already there on some of these counts. It will take a long hard battle to bring this kind of consumer-friendly atmosphere to the US. Blocking a merger like this which threatened to narrow competition down to two firms (Sprint would likely have been edged out and finally purchased by either the behemoth AT&T-mobile or Verizon) is only the beginning.
VZW has only had an iPhone for a relatively short period of time. A lot of AT&T's repeat business is due to people renewing and upgrading their iPhones. Once Verizon starts to get entrenched a few generations with their shinies they I think their business will grow and start taking a bigger bite out of AT&T. Especially since Verizon hasn't even had theirs for 2 years yet.
As for the people you know that are waiting to get away from sprint, steer them away from AT&T because the customer service with them is likely equally poor if not worse.
The point is, whether or not AT&T is shrinking, they suck on many levels and I don't want to have to go back to them. This sentiment seems to be echoed through out this thread which I know is not indicative of society in general, but even if it represents a small part, they will lose market share due to poor service in all sectors of their business.
I got here through a series of tubes
I think you fall under his moron category. Three felonies a day? Give me a break. You have gone off the deep end.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Just record them... They've already told you that the phone call is being recorded, so neither party should be able to say they didn't know it was being recorded. Just to be sure, let them know that you are recording the phone call as well as soon as you get someone. I'm sure the solution to that isn't in their script.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Sprint's getting an iPhone anyway in September.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Also, CDMA (Sprint and Verizon) works better in wide-open spaces whereas GSM (T-Mobile and AT&T) works better in densely-populated areas. I think it explains the iPhone vs. Android map.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Actually CDMA works better in densely populated areas as well. It is able to handle a larger call volume in the same amount of spectrum compared to GSM. Why do you think AT&T customers have so many problems in places like New York and San Francisco? CDMA allows multiple devices to transmit at the same time on the same frequency and is much better at adjusting the power levels compared to GSM.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
Three felonies a day? Give me a break. You have gone off the deep end.
I am not posting to defend the GP's statements. Instead, I would like to point you to the book Three Felonies a Day, which I have read. It does a good job of showing the pervasiveness with which liberty has been (and continues to be) eroded by inappropriate application of outdated laws and regulations. It was written by a well respected lawyer who champion's individuals' legal rights. It is worth a read.
I welcome our new 99% overlords.
Who wants a wireless carrier called AT&T-Mobile?
Umm. AT&T has been buying out the "independents" for the last several years so they don't have to deal with roaming agreements. It won't be long before the rest are swallowed up.
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
Why doesn't Intel use their own integrated video? Granted, they are still crap but I see little reason why Intel would have to use a Matrox chip.
And look how well that has worked out for them....
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
How many big company CEOs actually put themselves in the commercials? Shows me he is personally invested in the success of Sprint.
Dave Thomas, may he RIP
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
When has a merger ever created more jobs? IIRC there was a leaked memo that mentioned they were planning on laying off about 20,000 employees after the merger. I can't remember the source at this time, but will post again once I find it.
I've been through mergers. It's always the same. There is always a duplication of services within the newly formed larger business entity so in order to create more efficiency they will remove those duplicate positions from the payroll.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
I don't do that.
Also that is only 1 uncommon thing, not the two or three you claimed were common. In fact that is a law I agree with. You should have to prove that you do not use endangered woods in products you sell. You could just avoid using those types of woods altogether if ti is too much hassle. Interstate regulation of commerce is a federal power in the constitution!
Months? They must not be sleeping much. I work with an Indian woman who has lived here in the US for nearly two decades and I still can't understand a fucking thing she says.
Cool post bro, highfive \o
Holy crap. Someone dump AT&T into a vat of molten steel quick! You can break the mother-fucker up, but it just keeps reforming!
Cool post bro, highfive \o
You seem to be ignorant of how relationships like this work.
DT gets the cash. Most likely they will use it to fund other subsidiaries, pay dividends to shareholders, or the like. What they will not do with it is sink it back into T-Mobile. Which means T-Mobile will not be able to use it to expand infrastructure, acquire more subscribers, etc.
Think of it like a guy that owns 5 convenience stores. He decides that one is unprofitable and he's unwilling to invest any more money into it. He tentatively agrees to sell it to a woman who agrees to pay him a sum of money if the deal falls through. The deal falls through. The woman pays the guy the money. The unprofitable store is still unprofitable, is no better off, and will likely close shortly. But the guy that owns the store walks away with a nice spot of cash to offset his losses.
Federal agencies have two types of positions, career and appointed. The appointed positions generally set the tone and direction for the career positions. So, it could be the same zombies but more likely than not a different witch is the one holding the staff of power that directs their actions.