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Top US Antitrust Official Uncertain of Need For Four Wireless Carriers (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The head of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division, Makan Delrahim, declined on Friday to support the Obama administration's firm backing of the need for four U.S. wireless carriers. Asked about T-Mobile's plan to buy Sprint for $26 billion, Delrahim declined to reiterate the view of President Barack Obama's enforcers, who had said that four wireless carriers were needed. Instead, Delrahim told reporters, "I don't think there's any magical number that I'm smart enough to glean." He also said the department would look at the companies' arguments that the proposed merger was needed for them to build the next generation of wireless, referred to as 5G, but that they had to prove their case.
This is a technically true statement. It's pretty much impossible to know what specific number of carriers would magically create the optimal amount of competition.
Whatever the optimal number or range might be, though, it sure as hell isn't less than four.
Those two statements are in direct contradiction with each other. If it's impossible to know what specific number of carriers are needed, then you cannot possibly know it has to be four or more...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
I cannot know the number.
Therefore, how can I presume to know the correct BOUNDS for the number as well?
That is not logical.
There are many, many examples from both science and math where we know the bounds without knowing the specific number.
Graham's Number is an obvious example, but there are many others.