thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
The FCC announced that they were opposed to it, the Justice Dept filed suit against it, now AT&T has temporarily withdrawn (whatever that means) their proposal to merge with T-Mobile. And will apparently have to take a multi-billion write-down to pay off T-Mobile and Deutche Telecomm for failure to perform.

The merger is history for now, but it's likely to come back. AT&T is spouting that it will create jobs and investment opportunities and I don't see how. If the merger goes through, you'll see customer support staff at T-Mobile downsized and AT&T will go on like business as usual. AT&T claims the merger will make it easier to expand, but the reality is that, while both carriers are GSM-based, they use different frequency spectrums and are not cross-compatible. The two networks would either remain distinct, or AT&T would have to re-tool the T-Mobile towers with new equipment to make them compatible, making the orphaned users have to buy new gear.

The most blatant, bald-faced lie is the study that it would cost less for AT&T to build-out their infrastructure for better coverage than it would to buy T-Mobile. This merger was for one reason only -- eliminate a competitor.

The sad thing is that T-Mobile is in financial trouble as they've lost their European partner, so we shall see what happens with them.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/11/att-withdraws-tmobile-merger/all/1

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/11/24/2348203/att-stops-t-mobile-merger-bid-with-the-fcc

Date: 2011-11-26 08:48 am (UTC)
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
From: [personal profile] silveradept
It almost sounds like the anti-trust department actually gave AT&T a strong pushback over their acquisition.

Date: 2011-11-26 03:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thewayne.livejournal.com
There are two lines of speculation. One is that they're hoping the RNC will take over the White House and Washington will become (once again) more amenable to such mergers. The other is that they want to withdraw their submission as so many aspects of it have been proven to be such blatant lies that they could be construed as submitting false information on a government form.

Date: 2011-11-26 05:56 pm (UTC)
silveradept: A kodama with a trombone. The trombone is playing music, even though it is held in a rest position (Default)
From: [personal profile] silveradept
Not something they want to be liable for, definitely, as that would be provable, prosecutable, and suable, regardless of who was in the White House. But yes, I can completely see a Republican President just shrugging and saying, "CAPITALISM."

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