Verizon: No Plans to Oppose AT&T/T-Mobile Deal

[JMcEntegart]

Verizon CEO Daniel Mead has said his company will not be opposing the AT&T/T-Mobile USA merger that was first announced on Sunday.

Verizon: No Plans to Oppose AT&T/T-Mobile Deal : Read more

 

[Guest]

if this is the case then the two companies are obviously in collusion with each other to monopolize the market.

 

[Guest]

price fixing and diminishing the quality of service for higher prices only gets easier as players are removed from the table.

 

[Guest]

The media misunderstands the economics of antitrust. Companies *want* market consolidation, because the lack of competition increases the prices charged by all remaining parties.

In fact, Verizon would not be able to sue under the Sherman Act even if it wanted to, under the "Antitrust Injury" doctrine. Quite simply, the Supreme Court has realized this fact, that competitors actually benefit from consolidation, and thus do not meet the requirements of the Constitution that a party must suffer "injury in fact" before bringing a lawsuit.

 

[gorehound]

this world is doomed

 

[kencolestud69]

I bet they are not worried because they are going to buy Cricket and Metro PCS. Just my prediction.

 

[tbake]

....it would be a duopoly, not monopoly...

 

[viperburkh]

Verizon is busy trying to get 4G LTE out to more markets. They are wise to worry about upgrading their own infrastructure to make faster speeds and better service possible rather than worry about the nuances of bringing another wireless company into the fold and dealing with the hassles of mergers, etc. Besides it sounds like Verizon is still banking on providing better service (signal, etc) compared to AT&T even with the T-mobile merger. Being the best wireless provider doesn't always mean having to be the largest.

 

[RobinPanties]

Verizon is saying this:
We're going to wait because either:
1. All the T-Mobile subscribers will flee AT&T because AT&T suxorz, and even though most will fly to Sprint because they'll offer the best prices and "unlimited"/"uncapped" service, we'll still pick up a decent percentage of the fleers
-or-
2. This move will hurt Sprint bad and then, their stock will drop low enough that we can buy them cheaper if we wait for them to become crippled

 

[acadia11]

NO, Verizon has it's sites on Sprint, since, Sprint is also CDMA as is Verizon.

 

[hoofhearted]

I am on AT&T right now, but as soon as my contract is up, I am going to go to either Sprint or Verizon. Not because I have anything against AT&T, but either for a better price or a speedier connection. Plus I want to be able to tether in an unlimited fashion (without the need to hack for it).

This website (which show the tower distribution for my area) helped me as well. When I saw the Verizon(37) & Sprint(16) Tower coverage, then looked at the AT&T(12) and T-Mobile(3), it seems that even with AT&T & T-Mobile combined(15), their coverage is still smaller for my area(New Orleans).

http://www.cellreception.com/coverage/la/new-orleans/page1.html

 

[Guest]

@tbake - ...if they're working together, then it's an effective monopoly...

 

[captaincharisma]

they don't care they know that when AT&T takes over they will lose half of T-Mobile's customer base

 

[x4dm]

Why would Verizon care? They stand to land millions of customers as a result of this deal, not to mention the fact they now have less people competing with them on price. Bad news for consumers since prices will only go up.

 

[josh jones]

AT&T may be forced to sell some of that sweet spectrum. If AT&T is forced to sell some spectrum and they still have some 700 MHz range, then Verizon will be there to acquire that piece of the pie

 

[eddieroolz]

If Verizon isn't overly concerned it might mean that they're planning a retaliatory acquisition of their own, perhaps.

 

[milktea]

As long as AT&T remains competitive in terms of pricing, then most subscribers would probably stay with AT&T. No worries. 😛

 

[ottozero]

People its like we all think the same, because we are SANE. AT&T will lose a lot of their T-Mobiles customers to Sprint and Verizon. Sprint will grow stronger, and remain a strong 3rd Mobile Carrier, at which point Verizon after improving and expanding it 4g network will try to acquire Sprint. At which point Metro PCs will become the 3rd Carrier and remain the third carrier for along time.

 

[tsnorquist]

[citation][nom]mobrocket[/nom]... and why buy sprint now, att and verizon will just force them dead[/citation]

I would expect Google to play its hand with Sprint in this game. You're already seeing it with Google Voice integration. Don't count sprint out yet.

 

[tonydu]

Of course Verizon doesn't object. There has been research for decades showing that a few competitors in a market are able to create an effective monopoly. The only real question is why our society has allowed industries to do this. There are plenty of ideas for laws that would prevent this.