NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
101–110 of 211 posts
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#102I guess I don't understand how anti-trust laws work. Didn't they break up "Ma Bell" a few years ago specifically to prevent monopolies? And since then, AT&T bought Cingular, now T-Mobile, and they pretty much have a monopoly on GSM, if not on all mobile phones.
Those laws were more enthusiastically enforced then...
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#103Does anyone know if either the DOJ or the FTC have approved this? ed: FCC approval is probably kind of important too...
Consider how much the large telecoms in the US fund our politicians. I'm sure this will go through without a hitch. Sadly :(
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm aware. The point is that they were still only negotiating with a single GSM carrier.
Using CDMA in the US and GSM in the rest of the world would mean different hardware. Were they ever seriously considering that?
Yes, in fact, they approached Verizon about the iPhone before AT&T.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#105It's a natural fit for AT&T to buy T-Mobile. They both 3G GSM (UMTS) technology. T-Mobile is probably better in some key markets than AT&T, most notably New York (City). The one issue with T-Mobile is it uses the fairly nonstandard 1870 MHz frequency. I don't know of any other carrier that does (anywhere). I assume this is because AT&T has the rights to the more common frequencies in the relevant markets? I wonder wh…
> I can see this acquisition facing some serious regulatory and legislative scrutiny. One can hope, but I'm not holding my breath. My guess is that FTC and FCC will make some comments, AT&T will make some small gestures, the deal gets approved and about a year later AT&T's plans increase in price by 15-20%.
And Slashdot and Reddit and a thousand independent tech blogs will fill with upset explanations of why this is bad for the market while no formal challenge or brief to the FTC is ever mounted.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've obviously not been in the mobile handset business. Very, very few handsets are built for both GSM and CDMA, which is a situation that won't change for quite a while (upcoming next-gen LTE handsets should work on all carriers, but we will see about that). At the time of the iPhone deal, T-Mobile and AT&T were Apple's only two real options for deployment (Verizon was a negotiating tactic) -- they wanted to build…
You think Apple might have launched on T-Mobile, the last-place network? Nationwide wireless networks are extraordinarily capital-intensive. Absent a massive technological shift --- which may be coming and which AT&T and Verizon are powerless to stop --- there are always going to be a (1) few (2) very large companies providing cell coverage. It may be more expensive to launch a nationwide wireless network than it is…
Yes, which is why regulations regarding non-discriminatory network access are beneficiary to consumers.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#107It's a natural fit for AT&T to buy T-Mobile. They both 3G GSM (UMTS) technology. T-Mobile is probably better in some key markets than AT&T, most notably New York (City). The one issue with T-Mobile is it uses the fairly nonstandard 1870 MHz frequency. I don't know of any other carrier that does (anywhere). I assume this is because AT&T has the rights to the more common frequencies in the relevant markets? I wonder wh…
> Wireless really is a mess in the US. Europe and Australia have really benefited from choosing one technology (GSM). How are pricing plans in the US when you are roaming beyond your state? I live in Sweden, where I have a decently priced data and call plan. However, as soon as I go outside of Sweden, which is a small country (9M people), I have to pay roaming charges. I don't mind so much the call charges, but they…
Hej! I'm vacationing in Sweden right now
My iPhone is roaming on telenor. AT&T wants to charge me $19.99 per MB for data roaming here. Needless to say it turned it off and I'm using wifi when available.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
It matters because it increases the switching cost for anyone that wants to go to a competitor. You can't bring your phone with you, so you MUST make an upfront commitment of either buying a phone or signing a 2 year contract to get the phone without an upfront cost. When there are multiple companies that provide the network type your phone uses, you can move between them at no cost.
But with only two providers of GSM, you already have emerging cartel pricing dynamics. It's not even as good as airlines (which are also somewhat collusively pricied), where you usually have 5-6 choices for any trip. More competition is good, but, from a pragmatic perspective, the loss in competition (such as it is) might not outweigh the gain in efficiency for AT&T and T-Mobile subs.
> But with only two providers of GSM, you already have emerging cartel pricing dynamics.
And people already complain about the fact that there are only 2 GSM providers and 2 CDMA providers in the US. Your statement appears to me to be "I don't understand why you are complaining, it's not much worse than what we already have", but people already don't like what we have. This just makes it worse. Between a rock and a hard place, I guess. I completely understand your point, but slowly taking away options and freedoms to slowly turn a free and complacent consumer base into a single group under control of one entity is not a cool thing to do. Look at the current political debate over wiretaps and the PATRIOT act, it's the same idea.
Our choices as consumers and citizens are slowly being whittled away and no one gives a shit because "It won't be much worse than what we already have."
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#109Ugh. This might finally get me to leave T-mobile. I left ATT after a horrible experience and vowed to never go back. I am not happy.
Agreed. Do you think T-mobile will allow termination of contracts without a early termination fee? I'm guessing probably not, but I'd jump ship if I could avoid the fees.
If they change the TOS, you'll have a chance to jump for free.
See article seven of the CTIA's Consumer Code for Wireless Service (http://files.ctia.org/pdf/The_Code.pdf):
"Carriers will not modify the material terms of their subscribers’ contracts in a manner that is materially adverse to subscribers without ... allowing subscribers a time period of not less than 14 days to cancel their contracts with no early termination fee."
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Using CDMA in the US and GSM in the rest of the world would mean different hardware. Were they ever seriously considering that?
Yes, in fact, they approached Verizon about the iPhone before AT&T.
And one of the results of that talk was that it would not be beneficial to manufacture two handset models, so they walked away to look at the bigger picture.