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In doubt it will last, but it's nice to see once in a small while the government at least makes an effort to protect consumer choice in the marketplace.
I have spent most of my working life working in Telecom or in Telecom-related fields and I can tell you this merger was a bad idea from the start. Mega-mergers of this nature rarely if ever benefit the consumer. One of my personal biggest political issues has been that the government has all but given up supporting anti-trust laws, and has essentially been rubber-stamping all the propaganda given them corporate merger & acquisition attorneys. Mega-mergers represent the single greatest threat to the invisible hand of the marketplace: the reduction of competition that eventually emerges reduces competitive prices and technical inovation, not to mention causing (in this case) tens of thousands of jobs lost due to consolidation, which further stresses the economic conditions of the cities and states were these lay-offs take place.
In direct relation to the Telecom industry in the US, let's compare the European market. The EU (yes, those socialist loving b**tards) have actually been fairly diligent at preventing consolidation of their mobile telecom market. As a result their phone and network technology is at least 5 years ahead of our own in this country, there is far more diversity in the make and models of wireless phones themselves available to European wireless consumers, and (Here is the Kicker!) they pay only 1/10th of the price we do for comparable wireless plans. That means if you own a smartphone in the US, your are probably paying over $100 dollars a month easy for your service contract. In most European countries, a consumer pays between $10 and $20 USD (equivalent currency) for the EXACT SAME SERVICE.
Of course, AT&T has a lot of money, lawyers, and lobbyist, so I expect this suit will eventually be dropped and the merger will go through. The sad part is there will be plenty of American's drinking the corporate Kool-Aid and smoking corporate paper (you know the ones that defend Corporations making billions of dollars in US profits while out-sourcing our jobs and yet not paying a cent in US taxes, but think its okay for small to medium sized-business employing people in our communities having to pay 30% or more of their income to taxes), who will see this law suit as an attack on the free market and will celebrate when the merger goes through, only to complain bitterly when they are paying hundreds of dollars a month for a fake 4G connection that drops every other phone call.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
10,471 posts, read 15,835,178 times
Reputation: 6438
AT&T sucks.
Long time ago, 'round 2003 or so AT&T bought my local cable company.
I was told by AT&T, "Service interruption no more than 24 hours and you will keep the same service.'
3 days later, I get the cable back. I'm missing Disney and the educational channels. I call. Lines are busy. All agents are busy. It's a 24 hour call line.
I work the midnight shift, so I try calling 2 AM, 3...4...5.... all agents are busy. Yeah, sure, I bet there's a massive line of people trying to get through at 3:12 AM.
I finally do get through sometime that morning and ask 'em, "Where's Disney? Where's National Geographic?" and they say, "Oh, those are premium channels and you can get them as part of an (upsale) package B, C, D or you can pay 5 bucks per channel you want. SO I say, "You guys said I wouldn't lose any service." and the person says, "Well, it is what it is." and I said, ""Give me the disconnect department, please."
***n you, AT&T. ***n you to Hell.
I busted out some rabbit ears. My kids switched from Mickey to Clifford the Big Red Dog. I never looked back.
Don't have cable now, either. Too much for too little. I got one of those digital TV antennas. That's good enough. Heck, you get most anything you want from Hulu or Project Free TV, anyway.
In doubt it will last, but it's nice to see once in a small while the government at least makes an effort to protect consumer choice in the marketplace.
I have spent most of my working life working in Telecom or in Telecom-related fields and I can tell you this merger was a bad idea from the start. Mega-mergers of this nature rarely if ever benefit the consumer. One of my personal biggest political issues has been that the government has all but given up supporting anti-trust laws, and has essentially been rubber-stamping all the propaganda given them corporate merger & acquisition attorneys. Mega-mergers represent the single greatest threat to the invisible hand of the marketplace: the reduction of competition that eventually emerges reduces competitive prices and technical inovation, not to mention causing (in this case) tens of thousands of jobs lost due to consolidation, which further stresses the economic conditions of the cities and states were these lay-offs take place.
In direct relation to the Telecom industry in the US, let's compare the European market. The EU (yes, those socialist loving b**tards) have actually been fairly diligent at preventing consolidation of their mobile telecom market. As a result their phone and network technology is at least 5 years ahead of our own in this country, there is far more diversity in the make and models of wireless phones themselves available to European wireless consumers, and (Here is the Kicker!) they pay only 1/10th of the price we do for comparable wireless plans. That means if you own a smartphone in the US, your are probably paying over $100 dollars a month easy for your service contract. In most European countries, a consumer pays between $10 and $20 USD (equivalent currency) for the EXACT SAME SERVICE.
Of course, AT&T has a lot of money, lawyers, and lobbyist, so I expect this suit will eventually be dropped and the merger will go through. The sad part is there will be plenty of American's drinking the corporate Kool-Aid and smoking corporate paper (you know the ones that defend Corporations making billions of dollars in US profits while out-sourcing our jobs and yet not paying a cent in US taxes, but think its okay for small to medium sized-business employing people in our communities having to pay 30% or more of their income to taxes), who will see this law suit as an attack on the free market and will celebrate when the merger goes through, only to complain bitterly when they are paying hundreds of dollars a month for a fake 4G connection that drops every other phone call.
Great Decison and to be expected. However lets see how this plays out.
I am a big fan of antitrust law, but it bothers me that they apply it so selectively.
AT&T is the company from hell, no question -- i hate them. However, surely they can't be considered any more of a monopoly than, say, Time Warner Cable, or Comcast.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
10,471 posts, read 15,835,178 times
Reputation: 6438
I say if someone gets too big the government should join them forcibly with AOL.
They'll be in the pits, in no time.
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But the union
