Posted on 03/20/2011 3:20:57 PM PDT by Slyscribe
AT&T announced on Sunday that it has agreed to purchase T-Mobile U.S.A. from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion in cash and stock. If regulators approve the deal — a big if — it would combine the No. 2 and No. 4 U.S. wireless phone companies.
Consumer groups will surely oppose the deal. They’ll argue that Verizon Wireless, co-owned by Verizon Communications (VZ) and U.K.-based Vodafone (VOD), will be waiting in the wings to swoop in and buy Sprint Nextel (S). That hypothetical deal would marry the No. 1 and No. 3 wireless firms in the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.investors.com ...
Not worth it.
Posted here from a couple of hours ago:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2691863/posts
and here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2691840/posts
That should be a no and a hell no, competition is what a free market is all about.
The cellphone business is headed for an oligopoly, in terms of equipment manufacturing and in service providers. This isn’t good.
So the government preventing a private company from buying another private company is free enterprise?
When private companies get too big, in essence they become public trusts, because they become ‘too big to fail’, and we’ll wind up footing the bill if they do fail.
I used to work for AT&T. Since the breakup formed the Baby Bells I don’t think they’ve ever done anything right and they consistently lose money making the wrong choices. If I were T Mobile I’d run away as fast as I could.
AMEN! Wish they'd shown Verizon the door when they wanted to buy Alltel. My internet connection via aircard hasn't been the same.
“So the government preventing a private company from buying another private company is free enterprise?”
I would agree with you except we treat corporations as citizens and give them the right, almost encourage them to buy politicians. If they were not allowed to contribute to politicians then I would agree with you.
As a long time, very happy, T-Mobile customer, I cringe at the thought of this buyout. Guess I’ll have to go back to smoke signal and flags. lol
Better than allowing the merger to occur, thus driving down the number of competitors in a market space where eventually a few (1 or 2...) competitors would control price, product and consumer options.
I happen to be a T-Mobile customer, I left AT&T because their service SUCKED big-time. Instead of paying $79/mo. for basic cellphone service with AT&T, I purcahsed 1,000 minutes - good for a year - from T-Mobile for $100.
I have all the cellphone service I need for an entire year for $100 vs. AT&T's crappy monthly service or pre-pay packages.
Surely AT&T will eliminate T-Mobile's packages and I'll be hunting for a different service provider again. NO way I'll ever do business with AT&T again. Period.
You are damn straight. You are too young to remember the days of ma bell, only game in town, most corrupt crap that ever was. And no one is preventing them from growing, they can make all the damn mouse traps they wish.
We have been with TM for a long time and have always had great service and great phone coverage. The plan we have now is really good......3000 minutes, unlimited nights, weekends, unlimited mobile-mobile, unlimited texting all for under $140 and that is for 5 phone lines.
Business Analysis: One crappy wireless company is buying another crappy wireless company to become a large crappy wireless company.
VERIZON - CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Well, my AT&T service, which has deteriorated into one step above crap as they oversold bandwidth via the iPhone, will probably slide even more now.
Papasmurf, I’m right with you. I’ve had T-Mobile from the very first, way back when the reception was spotty because they didn’t have many towers. Now, I get reception everywhere I go—even when others can’t.
Their service and tech support are both the best, too!
Cr*p! Time to look for another carrier. T-Mobile was great, but one year with the Death Star in the 90s was enough.
We were with them when they were Voicestream. Urban coverage is great; rural less so. But service is great.
There goes our decade-plus of top status.
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