FCC Believes AT&T/T-Mobile Merger Would Harm Consumers

[CaedenV]

Funny, most of the time I tend to think the FCC is out to mess with consumers, nice to see it the other way around for once!

Also, I love the ATT death star pick! Priceless! (and I am an ATT customer lol)

 

[STravis]

[citation][nom]cuecuemore[/nom]The FCC has no interest in helping consumers. If they did, they would go die in a fire.[/citation]
What an idiotic statement - did you manage it on your own or did you have to get help from the rest of your inbred family?

 

[TheKurrgan]

If it was any one other than AT&T it wouldn't be as bad.. Considering with the amount of spectrum they would have for a single carrier it would allow them to have service that would decimate the other carriers. However, its AT&T, so all it equates to is them using it to be greedy, screw the customer even more, and charge more for less.. The AT&T mantra.

 

[sykozis]

[citation][nom]Welve[/nom]Sykozis, I disagree, AT&T just finished an upgrade to their network and how often do you meet someone who says "I just have to have GSM over CDMI" it doesn't happen. Plus, you haven't addressed the fact that t-mobile has essentially been abandoned by its parent company, talk about a network that hasn't been upgraded, HSPA+ vs 4G anyone? And there are no plans in the future to expand. T-Mobile is hemorrhaging subscribers, so merger or not I doubt they continue to exist much longer and then what do you have? AT&T, a loaded company, that can just buy up GSM the easy way. I agree, the situation isn't the best, but this is a no-win if you are t-mobile customer.[/citation]
It's common practice for a parent company to stop investing in a sub-division that's the subject of a merger deal. Companies don't like to invest money with what is essentially a negative ROI. Fact is, AT&T only does what's necessary to avoid lawsuits. AT&T currently has available more "spectrum" than any other cellular carrier, but instead of making use of it they choose to lie and claim they have to buyout T-Mobile to acquire the necessary "spectrum". In fact, I believe the most recently numbers were round about AT&T possesses nearly double the "spectrum" of Verizon and Sprint combined.....with an extremely large majority of it being unused.

[citation][nom]thekurrgan[/nom]If it was any one other than AT&T it wouldn't be as bad.. Considering with the amount of spectrum they would have for a single carrier it would allow them to have service that would decimate the other carriers. However, its AT&T, so all it equates to is them using it to be greedy, screw the customer even more, and charge more for less.. The AT&T mantra.[/citation]
AT&T already has more unused "spectrum", than Verizon has total "spectrum"....

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]YAY!!!T-Mobile is soooo much cheaper.I've been with them for like 7 or 8 years cause they always have the lowest prices.I have Unlimited Data, Unlimited Texts and 1000 minutes on my phone and my wife's phone as well for $100.If you ask me it's still a ripoff but it IS still a much better deal than any other phone company seems to offer.[/citation]
Did you stop and think that the reason they wished to be bought out was because they can't afford to be in the marketplace with those deals? This isn't a situation where if the deal doesn't go through everything stays the same. Either T-Mobile makes drastic changes, such as raises prices, having data caps, etc, or they ay very well choose to leave the US market altogether.

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]sykozis[/nom]Of course AT&T is going to claim that the buyout will create jobs. They don't want to publicly admit that the restructuring of the 2 companies into 1 will in fact COST jobs as they terminate unneeded employees. Of course they'll claim that blocking the deal will prevent billions of dollars in new investments. They don't want to publicly admit that the investments that blocking the deal will prevent is investments in OTHER governments. Lets face it....based on history, AT&T is well known for shady deals, abuse of market position, extortionist fees, poor customer service, paying off government officials, and establishing a monopoly. Sorry, but AT&T is not concerned about what's best for consumers....only what's best for AT&T.
You really should read history.... AT&T, at no point, has ever cared about what's best for consumers. AT&T has also made no attempt to fix their own network. AT&T is well known for lying. Reducing the number of nation wide carriers is NOT in the best interest of consumers to any extent. MetroPCS is a very small carrier. Boost Mobile is the pre-paid division of Nextel, which is a division of Sprint. You're also taking the only 2 national GSM carriers and merging them, giving them near total control of the GSM network in the US. That effects EVERY GSM customer in the country, whether they're an AT&T or T-Mobile customer or not. Having a monopoly on GSM is not a solution....it's a problem. AT&T has the financial means to properly expand and upgrade their network and thus far has proven a complete unwillingness to do so.[/citation]
And if T-Mobile decides to no longer do business in the US, does this not then leave AT&T as the only GSM national carrier anyway? Remember, while the government can deny the merger, they can not force any business to stay in business against their wishes.

 

[eddieroolz]

Heck I'm not even American and I think that's a bad move.

 

[inglburt]

[citation][nom]Welve[/nom]@Marco925 Monopoly? What are you even talking about? Sprint, Metro PCS, Verizon, Boost Mobile, and even more local and regional carriers PLUS the fact that Deutsche Telecom has stopped investing in the United States (Basically screwing existing T-Mobile subscribers). Yeah, a real GREAT idea to prevent the acquisition of the smallest national carrier and the largest. It's not like Verizon and AT&T are merging, T-Mobiles subscriber numbers are marginal in comparison to the top 3. Also, the fact that 2 of our idiot government agecies think this is a bad idea compounds the fact they are wrong. Remember the same Department of Justice that is compiling the proceedings against the merger is the same Department of Justice that screwed up a report about MUFFINS. I have no faith in our government.[/citation]

So, are you against the decision just because you hate the government?, or do you just have problems seeing the obvious?

 

[inglburt]

[citation][nom]livebriand[/nom]Of course this merger means fewer jobs and the customers being screwed over even more. DUH![/citation]

No mobile provider has 4g or HSPA+ in all areas they cover. And as far as HSPA+, I get up to 9mb down and 6 up in places. Even when I only get 1 meg, it's good enough for me to check my emails or send pictures to the office for work in a matter of seconds. It uses less power than LTE and is fast enough for me. Hell, my home internet is only 10 meg down ans 768 up. How often are you downloading torrents on your phone anyhow? Videos only play so fast too. This" your internet is only 10 megs but it could be 30 megs so it's useless" attitude is so ridiculous... A society that is taught that nothing is good enough and we are getting ripped off because everything isn't perfect. Get over yourself.

 

[inglburt]

Sorry, that last post was directed at Bonehed, not liverbriand.

 

[climber]

"... the fact that two federal agencies working independently from one another does not bode well for the deal."
Should this not read, "... the fact that two federal agencies working independently from one another, reached the same conclusion, does not bode well for the deal."

 

[leper84]

[citation][nom]velocityg4[/nom]I say let T-Mobile subscribers vote on whether or not they want AT&T to take over their plans and then jack up their monthly fees.[/citation]

Thank you, I've been thinking that exact same thing. I don't see in these buyout situations why the consumer- the core of the company- doesn't get a say. Or at least why a consumer couldn't declare their contract voided through the act of having a different provider than intended.

Say I have someone bid to remodel my kitchen. I choose company B because not only are they cheaper, but company A does a horrible job. Well company B gets bought out partially through the contract by company A. Do I have to let company A now finish the contract? Hell no, I signed with not A for a reason. If we applied this same concept to the AT&T buyout if it succeeds, I wonder how many Tmobile subscribers if given a chance to walk away from their contracts without penalty (since Tmobile voided them) would do just that? If that were the situation we wouldn't need the DOJ or FCC to block this, AT&T wouldn't pay $34billion for some spectrum and employees they're going to fire anyways.

 

[stevenrix]

It seems like some people in this thread are employed by AT&T.

 

[un4given01]

MUFFINS?!?!! seriously, send me some blueberry please, so i can have it with my happy Tmobile AT&T-free latte!

 

[gus1991]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]YAY!!!T-Mobile is soooo much cheaper.I've been with them for like 7 or 8 years cause they always have the lowest prices.I have Unlimited Data, Unlimited Texts and 1000 minutes on my phone and my wife's phone as well for $100.If you ask me it's still a ripoff but it IS still a much better deal than any other phone company seems to offer.[/citation]


Yet what you fail to notice is the bigger advantage you get with ATT. Their coverage destroys T-Mobile and the also have the newest 4G LTE technology which from experience is fast as hell. (with SpeedTests to prove it.) So yeah you may be paying less but for 50 bucks more you and your wife would have 10x better service than with T-Mobile.
Ohhh, btw. Up until recently T-Mobile had 0 plans to build an LTE network meaning with all the competitors heading towards LTE they would have no chance to be competitive in the market..
Just something to think about...

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]inglburt[/nom]No mobile provider has 4g or HSPA+ in all areas they cover. And as far as HSPA+, I get up to 9mb down and 6 up in places. Even when I only get 1 meg, it's good enough for me to check my emails or send pictures to the office for work in a matter of seconds. It uses less power than LTE and is fast enough for me. Hell, my home internet is only 10 meg down ans 768 up. How often are you downloading torrents on your phone anyhow? Videos only play so fast too. This" your internet is only 10 megs but it could be 30 megs so it's useless" attitude is so ridiculous... A society that is taught that nothing is good enough and we are getting ripped off because everything isn't perfect. Get over yourself.[/citation]
But poor customer service, dropped calls, an unreliable networks, and high prices?

 

[blackened144]

T-Mobiles parent company wants to get rid of T-mobile and will do so one way or another.. Either they merge with ATT or T-Mobile just closes up shop.. I dont see how letting them just go out of business is any better than letting the merger happen..