AT&T Responds To DoJ Lawsuit

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Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 9, 2011 @09:50AM from the but-we-can-leverage-our-synergies,-honest dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Last week the Department of Justice filed an antitrust complaint to stop the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA. Now, AT&T has responded, arguing that the merger would benefit consumers by increasing competition and freeing up spectrum. 'That means increased output, higher quality service, fewer dropped calls,and lower prices to consumers than without the merger,' they say. Meanwhile, House Republicans have sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Attorney General Eric Holder asking for an explanation of 'what went into the decision to challenge the merger and whether the agencies considered the impact on jobs and economic growth.' A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 21."

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Text of AT&T response by elrous0 · 2011-09-09 09:50 · Score: 5, Funny

Where's the love, DoJ? Remember back when we were tight, when we were illegally spying on all those Americans? Those were good days, baby. We didn't need no warrants or paperwork back then, did we? Why you got to be like this now? Can't we just keep everything hush-hush, like we used to? Come on, you know you want to say yes--just like we said yes when you wanted to install all that spy gear on our trunk lines. You liked daddy's trunk, didn't you girl?
Show some love for AT&T, baby. Don't let it end this way. Let us tap that ass again, like we tapped everyone's phone for you. Let's get away from these courtrooms and just switch places, girl, with *you* bending over and *us* doing the tapping this time. Don't be a hater, DoJ. Let daddy take you all the way *up there*--above the law, just one more time.

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SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
1. Re:Text of AT&T response by RKBA · 2011-09-09 10:31 · Score: 2
  
  Were illegally spying on all those Americans??? Surprise, they still do, except now it's legal!
  
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  9/11 Eyewitnesses to Explosive WTC Demolition 1 of 2
AT&T seems evil by Ken+Broadfoot · 2011-09-09 09:55 · Score: 3, Insightful

I use AT&T... but the fact they have an exclusive with Apple, and they want T-Mobile.... doesn't remind ANYONE here of another company we tend to love to hate?
Speak about the "freedom" of the free market all you want, but I for one, applaud the governments actions here... Fsck AT&T...

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1. Re:AT&T seems evil by guspasho · 2011-09-09 10:05 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Competition > free markets
  Free markets are far from perfect; monopolies are only the most obvious flaw. Additionally, it's arguable whether a market dominated by a private monopoly is actually free. Free from governmental force, sure, but that isn't the only kind of freedom that is implied by the term free market.
Nonsense by inode_buddha · 2011-09-09 09:56 · Score: 5, Interesting

How does buying up another telco player encourage competition?

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C|N>K
1. Re:Nonsense by Jeng · 2011-09-09 09:59 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I think part of what they were saying is that they are so incompetent that they have to purchase a whole other company so they quit dropping calls.
  The competition they are talking about encouraging is their own ability to compete, not the market itself.
  They have their heads so far up their asses that they can't see anything else.
  
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  Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
2. Re:Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · 2011-09-09 10:00 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  How does it increase jobs? How does it increase economic growth? Here is a hint: all those cost reduction and merger synergies? They don't come from employing more people.
3. Re:Nonsense by interkin3tic · 2011-09-09 11:13 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You appear to be looking for logic and reason in a corporate press statement. That's a bit like seeking health advice in a morgue.
4. Re:Nonsense by Forthan+Red · 2011-09-09 11:43 · Score: 2
  
  After explaining how this increased competition, AT&T went on to explain that up is down, white is black, and "The Last Airbender" was an excellent film.
Forget Verizon Math by macromorgan · 2011-09-09 09:56 · Score: 2

We always laugh at Verizon for how they erroneously calculated billing, what about AT&T's fuzzy math? 4 competitors - 1 competitor > 3 competitors? tens of thousands of jobs lost due to merger "cost reductions" a few thousand call center jobs? Really? It boggles the mind how stupid they think we all are.
1. Re:Forget Verizon Math by Wiener · 2011-09-09 12:26 · Score: 2
  
  They don't think they know how stupid we are; they know it. They know this will all blow over and they'll be allowed to merge.
  I am hoping from the bottom of my heart that this merger doesn't happen, but at least if it does I'll have a way to back out of my contract with T-Mobile. I will not be an AT&T customer. Never again.
  That's not it, at all. They know that even if the the merger is blocked, T-Mobile is screwed. It's unverified by T-Mobile but customers appear to be leaving in droves, customer service is starting to suffer since the reps know they won't have a job in a year, and network improvements will stagnate leaving them so far behind the competition they'll look like Danica Patrick in a Sprint Cup race! Back to being serious, this will be just like what happened to Sun after the Oracle buyout was stretched out into eternity. The only difference is that T-Mobile was viable before buyout talk started and Sun was a zombie.
  No matter what happens, buyout blocked or not, AT&T has one less competitor. No matter what happens, we (and especially T-Mobile employees) lose.
Impact on jobs? by SeNtM · 2011-09-09 09:58 · Score: 5, Interesting

Why do republicans always side with large corporations? The impact the merger will have on jobs is that they will be reduced as AT&T consolidates redundant positions.

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"There ought to be limits to freedom." -George W. Bush
1. Re:Impact on jobs? by guspasho · 2011-09-09 10:08 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Why do republicans always side with large corporations?
  Fundraising.
2. Re:Impact on jobs? by SeNtM · 2011-09-09 10:18 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Oops, I forgot... The total of all US citizens is only worth three-fifths that of one Fortune-500 corporation.
  
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  "There ought to be limits to freedom." -George W. Bush
3. Re:Impact on jobs? by dunng808 · 2011-09-09 10:33 · Score: 3
  
  I see this as a challenge to the Obama administration rather than siding with anyone. We have all seen how Republicans have a knee-jerk negative response to anything Obama does.
  
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  Gary Dunn
  Open Slate Project
4. Re:Impact on jobs? by bmxeroh · 2011-09-09 10:44 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  This. I find myself to be a conservative moderate most days, with a few exceptions on some major issues. But the elected repubs are pissing me off. It is almost always about being completely polar opposite to anything Obama says or does now, that absolutely nothing gets done. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Obama, and the next time there is a republican pres. I will be bitching about the dems for the same reasons, but this is entirely why nothing gets done in the U.S. We spend more time pissing in each others cheerios than actually trying to come up with something useful. I mean for fucks sake, I get tax raises are unpopular, but there is no reason the tax code should benefit the well off and corps as much as it does. I don't get it, I honestly think that you may gain some popular vote by taking a slightly harder stance here, being as the bulk of the people won't fall into the wealthy category. Ugh, sorry for the ridiculous political rant.
  
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  Central Ohio Home Theater Installation - The Theater People
5. Re:Impact on jobs? by msoftsucks · 2011-09-09 11:07 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  That's because the Repubs have been paid off by the big boys. They no longer represent you or me, they really represent corporate interests which have been bought out by all of that lobbyist money. They even managed to modify lobbying and financing laws to allow international companies to buy them off. To see how bad "your" representative has been bought off go here
  
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  Linux - of the people, by the people, and for the people.
6. Re:Impact on jobs? by SeNtM · 2011-09-09 12:19 · Score: 2
  
  I am equally annoyed with democrats. Now-a-days I criticize both parties, its just in this instance the republican reasoning gave me a wtf moment. The political system in this country is corrupt and irrevocably broken. The same corporations and special interest groups hedge their bets by funding both parties. This ensures that regardless of the outcome they still end up dictating policy.
  
  By-and-large I am a little left of the fence, but only because corporate pandering is so obvious on the right. Large corporations outsource jobs, they don't create them. Some seventy plus percent of jobs in this country are created by small business. I own a small business and can tell you the reason I am not hiring has nothing to do with my tax rate.
  
  Just five percent of the people in the US control seventy-five percent of the money in this country and most have tax breaks that have them paying little more in taxes than their middle-class counterpart. If they paid around 10-15% (excluding that FICA bitch) like the rest of us...our governments financial problems would be solved...
  
  Just to put it into scope, the US GDP is $14,000,000,000,000. The top 5% (about 1-1.5million people, not including corporations which are people as defined by the 14th Amendment) control $10,500,000,000,000. Fifteen percent of that is $1,575,000,000,000. Which happens to be the deficit to date for this year. Amazing...If the corporations and fat-cats at the top would play fair, we would actually be succeeding as a country.
  
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  "There ought to be limits to freedom." -George W. Bush
Bullshit. by Xacid · 2011-09-09 09:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

How in the hell does acquiring a company like this result in MORE competition?
And lower rates? Just like us Cingular customers got? Yeah, right.
How can they even make such claims - that's damned near perjury.
1. Re:Bullshit. by firewrought · 2011-09-09 10:50 · Score: 2
  
  How in the hell does acquiring a company like this result in MORE competition?
  Why it's obvious... they are increasing the number of competitors from 4 to 3!
  
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  -1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
2. Re:Bullshit. by Anonymous Coward · 2011-09-09 11:03 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I Agree, but the more glaring item for me is the question from republicans about "Did the decision to oppose the merger consider the impact on jobs or economic growth???". this is comical to say the least, as ALL mergers result in job loss and what I would call REAL economic contraction. The ONLY point of a merger like this is to create a company with the combined market share of the original companies, but with a smaller overhead through the elimination of duplicate administrative overhead. The ONLY people that benefit are stockholders! Consumers see NO real measuable impact one way or the other (this coming from a user of former compaq products pre and post Hp merger) and there has never been a merger that added jobs.
3. Re:Bullshit. by Xacid · 2011-09-09 16:51 · Score: 2
  
  Wasn't fooled - AT&T and Cingular became one company. Rates increased. Nothing more to say on the matter.
Jobs? by kelarius · 2011-09-09 10:28 · Score: 2

House Republicans have sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Attorney General Eric Holder asking for an explanation of 'what went into the decision to challenge the merger and whether the agencies considered the impact on jobs and economic growth.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it AT&T's MO to merge then pretty much nuke the other company and fold it into their own? Wouldn't this eliminate tens of thousands of jobs?

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1. Re:Jobs? by Montezumaa · 2011-09-09 12:25 · Score: 2
  
  You are correct on the jobs portion, but you forgot another reduction: Coverage. When Cingular purchased AT&T Mobility, Cingular cut off a lot of the towers/antennas that AT&T Mobility was operating. Only when Cingular has no other choice did it actually keep a "blue tower" or old AT&T Mobility tower operating. So, the idea that coverage will improve is horseshit. The current plan is the same as the old Cingular plan was.
  AT&T might, might improve its coverage, to some degree, with the planned purchase of T-Mobile(I say purchase and not merger, as that is what this is). Regardless, the coverage will still suffer and current AT&T customers will still have the same, shitty UMTS/HSDPA coverage has it has had for years now. Many AT&T customers will be missing "3G" coverage, and will probably miss out on "4G" coverage, too.
  We will never see any of this change, as long as AT&T stays in business. For some reason, AT&T has not learned from Verizon's success, as far as rolling out technology upgrades in such an expansive way, in such a short amount of time(well, relatively so). I mean, hell, Verizon has LTE coverage less then 30 miles from my home, and it is getting closer everyday. AT&T has yet to roll out UMTS/HSDPA anywhere near my home, and my girlfriend tells me that she doubts we will ever see it(as I have stated before, many times, she works in a network position with AT&T).
Re:Republican Response by enigmatichmachine · 2011-09-09 10:41 · Score: 2

it would increase jobs, republican jobs. they'll lay off the redundant "little people" and hire more executives to manage the larger company.

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-and occasionaly a giant moose.
Re:WHY by Pieroxy · 2011-09-09 10:53 · Score: 5, Informative

This! One thousand and two times this!
No cable provider has a monopoly... across the US. But none has competition in its area. They're essentially mini-monopolies. Why do you think internet access sucks that much in the US? There is virtually no competition.
When I lived there (2000-2004) I lived through 4 different places. In the SF bay area. I had to change providers everytime, and everytime I had no choice.
In France, I can choose btw at least 8 providers in urban areas. Result? Free calls (>200 countries), free TV (100 channels), Unlimited internet (and trust me, it's uncapped and unthrottled) 20MB/2MB for 30€/month.

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