The FCC has released a report attacking AT&T’s proposal to buy T-Mobile as a damper on competition. The 157-page report was released on Wednesday, after the FCC accepted AT&T’s move to withdraw its request for approval of the $39 billion deal. The report evaluates the impact the merger would have on competition in the wireless market. While AT&T argued that it would result in cost savings for consumers, the FCC claimed that it would give AT&T incentives to raise prices. The combined entity of AT&T and T-Mobile, plus Verizon, would that would greatly decrease competition, the agency said.
I have a pretty basic senior value cellphone from tracfone. I accidentally know that it makes use of AT&T's network, but I get to pay a lot less than being AT&T's spread sheet by getting it through tracfone. This in itself is unremarkable, AT&T not getting the spectrum they're crying for is much more remarkable: It'll only be a matter of little time before the spectrum that AT&T can afford to resell, starts running thin, and the invariable consequence of paying higher prices - this is not good for me as a senior. I hope the merger happens, AT&T get their spectrum, and that world peace is just around the corner.
I have been a T-Mobile customer for many years (back to VoiceStream days) and frequently had problems with network roaming where AT&T refused to allow T-Mobile roaming on their network. Even now my office can pick up a T-Mobile or AT&T signal and I am required to force my phone to ignore the AT&T roaming. If my phone jumps over to the AT&T network I could make an outbound call but inbound calls would just ring without connecting. This is indicative to me that AT&T has been deliberately hampering the ability of T-Mobile to do business by paying only lip-service to the idea of network roaming.
In the AT&T world it is either "their way or no way" and they were perfectly willing to debilitate any competition through such tactics. This anti-competitive behavior has been in place for years as a way to keep other GSM providers from daring to exist and to force them into a disadvantage in areas where they practically held a Monopoly.
Loading ...
FCC to AT&T: Forget About It
Posted by: Rob Spiegel November 30, 2011 12:26 PMThe FCC has released a report attacking AT&T’s proposal to buy T-Mobile as a damper on competition. The 157-page report was released on Wednesday, after the FCC accepted AT&T’s move to withdraw its request for approval of the $39 billion deal. The report evaluates the impact the merger would have on competition in the wireless market. While AT&T argued that it would result in cost savings for consumers, the FCC claimed that it would give AT&T incentives to raise prices. The combined entity of AT&T and T-Mobile, plus Verizon, would that would greatly decrease competition, the agency said.
In the AT&T world it is either "their way or no way" and they were perfectly willing to debilitate any competition through such tactics. This anti-competitive behavior has been in place for years as a way to keep other GSM providers from daring to exist and to force them into a disadvantage in areas where they practically held a Monopoly.