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Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

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Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We the People should own infrastructure. Want to start a new shipping company to compete with UPS? You don't have to build roads, We the People provide those to you. So, do the same with wireless.

> We the People should own infrastructure Going 4 to 3 sucked, let’s go all the way to a state monopoly!

It didn't suck for the shareholders of the remaining 3. With a state monopoly, we'd all be shareholders. Win!

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that circular reasoning? Regulators have to allow the merger because other outcomes are unlikely, but they are unlikely because regulators always allow the merger. If the merger is blocked, the probability of that outcome falls to 0, and the others' increase, no?

You're assuming anybody else would have wanted to acquire a debt-laden company with an enormous infrastructure deficit as they mismanaged the move to 4/5g. Sprint essentially was only valuable to a company with a better LTE/5G network already in existence that users could me moved to and then Sprint's old spectrum repurposed. Anyone else would have been left with many tens of billions in network upgrade costs.

If the merger was blocked and no one else wanted to buy it whole, then their assets would get sold off and the proceeds divied up by creditors (and if anything was left after that, to shareholders), same as any other company. Why is this an unthinkable scenario? There would have been some market-clearing price for the Sprint brand name and CDMA network (possibly separately, or even the network itself parted out) and even if that price was zero, then it was the shareholders (and possibly creditors) who should have taken the bath, not the entire phone-using public.

Allowing an anti-competitive merger simply because the alternatives for Sprint shareholders were bad is a bailout by any other name.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to resolve these issues is never "force the bad guys to do good things" but rather destroy the walls which enable their rent seeking. Regulators can work to make it extremely simple for new techs in this space to come up so there is real competition for ATT etc.

The problem is that there is finite spectrum available. The upfront cost of building a national cellular network are also astronomical, regardless of regulatory hurdles. The FCC was created to manage the scarcity inherent to the radio spectrum. It's not an area where regular free market economics apply. GP's proposal would actually make it easier for startups to horn in on the territory of the big established players…

Out of curiosity: What are some examples of "regular free markets"?

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#164
T-mobile for years and still is cheaper then ATT & i assume Verizon. I was paying $165 for 4 unlimited lines with mobile hotspot. Now with T-Mobile same level of svc is $130 a month. Its up in the air tho if the service is a reliable and good as AT&T as i do have issues with T-mobile .. echoes heard on calls, calls not going thru/just dropping instead of connecting and no service at all where i previously had it with ATT (in southern york county pa by MD line).

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#165
The graph they chose to use in the article has to be one of the main poster childs for 'correlation does not mean causation'.

I don't know what's worse, not adjusting for purchasing power, or not adjusting for country size.

Also targeting 100GB screams 'writer had an agenda' to me. My screen on time is absolutely atrocious and I still rarely get over 20gb a month. I'm guessing the stats must change if you choose a number that fits in most plans defaults.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#166

I will say, I'm not terribly fond of mergers on principle. However, based on my insight as a former customer and shareholder of the company, Sprint's goose was most definitely cooked to a crisp. If this merger had not happened, I could have seen Sprint file for bankruptcy, with Verizon and AT&T picking the carcass clean. I think folks forget how dire Sprint's straits were at the time, and this specific merger truly w…

Dish network the supposed new 4th wireless carrier's goose is being cooked now and i bet will file for bankruptcy in the next year or so. Satellite pay TV is a dying to dead industry.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Sprint's goose was most definitely cooked The reason their goose was cooked is because they previously were planning to acquire T Mobile, but SoftBank got back-channel info that it would never be approved by the anti-trust regulators. At the time they had Marcelo Claure running Sprint, basically a corporate "fixer" guy for SoftBank. So he ran the company into the dirt in order to make the merge feasible to regulator…

How is ruining and destroying the value of Sprint, that SoftBank owns, possibly good for SoftBank? What is SoftBank to gain here from enriching TMobile?

I'm not sure if SoftBank deserves the credit of assuming that their actions are based on sound logical reasoning.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to resolve these issues is never "force the bad guys to do good things" but rather destroy the walls which enable their rent seeking. Regulators can work to make it extremely simple for new techs in this space to come up so there is real competition for ATT etc.

We the People should own infrastructure. Want to start a new shipping company to compete with UPS? You don't have to build roads, We the People provide those to you. So, do the same with wireless.

This is the biggest solution to the problem that many people seem to ignore. If you want your communities to prosper, then the public needs to own the infrastructure that companies provide services for. Full stop.

Anything less is giving companies control over something they should not have control over.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to resolve these issues is never "force the bad guys to do good things" but rather destroy the walls which enable their rent seeking. Regulators can work to make it extremely simple for new techs in this space to come up so there is real competition for ATT etc.

We the People should own infrastructure. Want to start a new shipping company to compete with UPS? You don't have to build roads, We the People provide those to you. So, do the same with wireless.

Nothing prevents you from working with liked minded individuals to create your own "infra". The phrase "we the people" sounds cool but in reality what you mean is "your money, my idea".

Roads is a very common argument, but none of the roads are build by "we the people". Government takes your money by force irrespective of how you think it should be spent and then a completely unaccountable red tapy system that employs otherwise unemployable people decides how to spend it. After a massive waste you have some roads which are poorly built even worse maintained.

There is no need for roads to be public infrastructure. It can be fully privatized and people be asked to pay for its use. (While entire compontent of taxes that go towards road building be returned back to the people.)

We will have better roads, less traffic and more money in pocket with that model.

Re: Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S.

#170
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a ridiculous proposal. Eliminating corporate bankruptcy and making employees personally liable for business debts would wreck the US economy. If debtors take a haircut then it's their own fault for lending in the first place; no one is forced to buy corporate bonds and vendors always have the option of requiring cash on delivery.

> making employees personally liable for business debts would wreck the US economy Letting employees loot the company for their own profit isn't any better.

Shareholders and lenders already have the necessary legal tools to prevent employee looting, if they choose to use them.
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