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FCC Opens Public Comments On T-Mobile-Sprint Merger (engadget.com)

Now is your chance to voice your opinion on the $26 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. The FCC is now accepting comments as well as formal petitions to deny the merger until August 27th. The companies and supporters of the deal can then file oppositions to those petitions by September 17th, while a final round of replies has a deadline of October 9th. Engadget reports: Anyone can file petitions to deny, and you might expect to see some from consumer advocacy groups and industry experts who may be concerned over the reduction in the number of national carriers from four to three. The FCC has laid out a 180-day review timeline to determine whether the merger is in the public interest, but that's more of a guideline and there's no required deadline for the agency to issue a decision.

4 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Wait, our opinions matter now ? by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or, if the majority of comments are not to the FCC's liking, are we just going to claim they were hacked again ?

    Quit pretending you give two shits about what the people think because your pretending to do so is insulting.

  2. Less concerned about a mobile monopoly than... by Archfeld · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am less concerned about a mobile phone monopoly than I am about collusion amongst cable delivery companies. The fact that the large cable companies won't even try and compete with each other and openly acknowledge such a strategy is a far greater threat to my mind than a possible mobile carrier monopoly. I feel like 3 companies with a healthy churning market is better than a locked in cable market that exists today in a large portion of the North American market.

    http://fortune.com/2015/05/19/...

    https://muninetworks.org/conte...

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  3. Re: No, say something interesting. It's not a vote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What is wrong with this merger? ATT and Verizon dominate all real markets. Sprint and T Mobile try to clean up a bit, but combined, they could be a challenger. You sound like a shill for one of the Big Two as opposed to someone who wants real competition.

  4. Smoke and Mirrors by SirAstral · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is the usual "feel good" politics designed to distract people from the real action and the real problem. Sadly it works all too well.

    There is only one comment period... and they are all called elections. Remember that congress has always had the power to tell the FCC and other regulatory agencies exactly what to do and or remake or destroy them when they turn into capture and the fact that they don't means that elected politicians know that they were successful in getting citizens to ignore congress and focus on the agencies instead allowing congress to largely get a pass on actually having to deal with the corruption in agencies. People are going to be too busy worried about which letter got voted in, over petty politics, instead of which letters actually did or are doing anything about the many problems. Empty platitudes along with ineffective or counter productive action is the order of the day.

    And since the ole regulation/deregulation arguments have become so nebulous and meaningless in context no one is really saying anything. Someone says regulation and congress or the agencies interpret the calls as "moar rules" even when those rules wind up helping businesses and hurting consumers. And then after those rules get put in everyone goes home like the problem is solved only to come back in another couple of years wondering why it is still a problem, rinse and repeat.