Monday, March 21, 2011

Hope and Prediction

My hope is that either the FCC or the Department of Justice deny the pending merger of AT&T and T-mobile (I mean seriously, could we have any less competition in the mobile phone market?), but my prediction is that after “a careful review,” both entities will rubber stamp this thing.  Go corporate interests. 

In case you missed it AT&T has offered to buy T-Mobile  in a deal valued at $39 billion.

http://gigaom.com/2011/03/20/att-to-buy-t-mobile-for-39-billion-here-is-why/

Sprint had this to say:

The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, if approved by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would alter dramatically the structure of the communications industry.  AT&T and Verizon are already by far the largest wireless providers.  A combined AT&T and T-Mobile would be almost three times the size of Sprint, the third largest wireless competitor.  If approved, the merger would result in a wireless industry dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically-integrated companies that control almost 80% of the US wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete. The DOJ and the FCC must decide if this transaction is in the best interest of consumers and the US economy overall, and determine if innovation and robust competition would be impacted adversely and by this dramatic change in the structure of the industry.

And PC magazine sums it up in this article:  AT&T Buys T-Mobile: Great For Them, Bad For You

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382279,00.asp

Can we get any more clear-cut that this is a bad corporate play?

No comments:

Post a Comment