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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?
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
Holy shit. There IS a ${deity}, after all.
(looks out the window)... wow, it's snowing outside (in South Florida), too!
AT&T doublespeak. Yes they met with the DoJ and the DoJ gave no indication that they would block the ruling. However it most likely the DoJ had not formed an opinion until after reviewing the implications and AT&T's documents. Or that the DoJ probably wanted to block it from the beginning but prudence would dictate they hear from AT&T first. If they hadn't met with AT&T, then the company would complain that they were being treated unfairly.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
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.
Hey! We totally pinkie-swear that if we are given nigh-unlimited power to bleed the nation's wireless users dry, we promise to build a couple of towers in rural nofuckingwhereistan and call it "Universal Access"! C'mon, it's a totally reasonable trade!
Does doublespeak count against my 'anytime' minutes; but at twice the normal rate, or do I need to upgrade my plan?
Their "5000 jobs" claim seems to belong in the same pile as the "Give us $100 million to build a stadium, and we promise to hire 6 hotdog vendors and a janitorial team!" arguments that get trotted out every time a pro sports team shakes down a municipality to build their business infrastructure for them... These sorts of things are so openly cynical and insultingly paltry that I'm honestly not sure why anybody even bothers pretending...
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.
It makes sense. Think about all the business that T-Mobile lost while this thing was pending. People did not renew, some people did not switch to T-Mobile due to the uncertainty, etc. If it DOESN'T go through, T-Mobile needs to be compensated for that loss.
Copying a post of mine from earlier, yes, T-Mobile actually will be compensated quite well for this.
If this deal is blocked, it would not be bad news for T-Mobile as some here have claimed. According to Bloomberg,
"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 pretty sure Nextel was iDEN, not GSM.
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