 morboComplete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000 | Does this deal require Government approval? It's unclear from this article: does AT&T's plans to acquire Alltel require government approval? If so, is it anticipated to be approved easily? |
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 spewakR.I.P DadkinsPremium
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA
kudos:1
 ·SureWest Internet
| "Awaken the Kracken!!!" Granted nobody but AT&T really knows how much spectrum AT&T really needs, and competitors and consumer advocates alike continue to worry that AT&T is simply using their deep pockets to acquire additional spectrum to prevent new competitors from entering the market.
Nailed it! |
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 SrsBsns
join:2001-08-30
Oklahoma City, OK | AT&T "We don't want to be the best wireless carrier. We want to be the only wireless carrier". |
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| reply to morbo
Re: Does this deal require Government approval? Yes, and it should be approved. After blocking T-Mobile AT&T complained the FCC was slow to approve spectrum deals and the FCC has sped up approval process somewhat... |
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| AT&T doesn't know how to compete They don't know how to compete. They only know how to conquer anyone who is being remotely competitive. I'm so happy they weren't allowed to buy T-Mobile. I'm enjoying my $24 per month cell phone bill so much! |
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| Dude, ATT didn't get to wherre they are today without competing and succeeding the the marketplace giving millions of new customers what they want and who find value in their services.
If you want to critisize, look at sprint's crippling nextel and clearwire debacles, which effectively took them out of the game as a legitimate provider. Or Verizon's selling out to a foreign carrier. |
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Reviews:
·Frontier Communi..
| new wireless carriers Granted nobody but AT&T really knows how much spectrum AT&T really needs, and competitors and consumer advocates alike continue to worry that AT&T is simply using their deep pockets to acquire additional spectrum to prevent new competitors from entering the market.
What would the odds be of new competitors emerging though? Which company and/or group of investors is going to sink tens of billions of dollars into building a new nationwide wireless network? It's a mature market, for better or worse, and mature markets don't tend to see new outfits jumping into them with the forlorn hope of snatching market share away from their established competitors. More to the point, do we need a fifth nationwide wireless network? How much infrastructure duplication are you prepared to condone, and what happens if you overbuild and turn the industry into a bubble (think of the housing market) that later crashes?
A better policy approach would have been to give Sprint and T-Mobile priority access to better spectrum holdings. Verizon and AT&T should not have been allowed to gobble up the 700mhz bands freed by the sunsetting of analog TV. They already have 850mhz cellular licenses across most of the country, while T-Mobile and Sprint are forced to compete using less attractive PCS and AWS holdings (Sprint does have a limited amount of lower spectrum holdings inherited from Nextel's iDen network, not sure if it's enough to deploy LTE on though)
There's simply no way for Sprint and T-Mobile to compete on a level playing field when they are forced to use frequencies that don't penetrate as well as the ones AT&T and Verizon have. They can spend more capital to equal their coverage, or they can have an inferior product, neither approach is a recipe for success.
I'm not much for interference in the marketplace, but the airwaves are a public resource, and once upon a time we only issued licenses for them if it would advance the public good. We ought to get back to that mentality, IMHO, and create something of a level playing field in this industry. |
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 cchhat01Dr. Zoidberg
join:2001-05-01
Elmhurst, NY
 ·RCN CABLE
·Earthlink Cable ..
| This is the kind of shit that makes me wanna move to... another country... If the FCC approves this kind of crap then I will definitely contemplate moving to another country.
Seriously. Is it critical or vital for AT&T to go ahead and acquire another wireless carrier to survive.
Go f***ing ahead and kill anything that remotely resembles competition. F***ing A**holes.
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"Look at me, I'm Dr. Zoidberg, homeowner." |
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phazah
join:2004-05-02
Findlay, OH | kinda sad... Bad enough ATT is pumping out inferior product under the dsl/uverse shell, now taking over another halfway ok smaller business(that is a shell of its old self).
no competition anymore.... |
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 MizzatWill post for thumbsPremium
join:2003-05-03
Atlanta, GA
kudos:1 | reply to cchhat01
Re: This is the kind of shit that makes me wanna move to... said by cchhat01:another country... If the FCC approves this kind of crap then I will definitely contemplate moving to another country.
Seriously. Is it critical or vital for AT&T to go ahead and acquire another wireless carrier to survive.
Go f***ing ahead and kill anything that remotely resembles competition. F***ing A**holes.
Let us know how that works out for you! Bon Voyage! |
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 IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Broadban..
| Divestitures Hopefully this won't involve divestitures. Last time a carrier was bought out, AT&T and Verizon swapped customers. I want to remain a Verizon customer. My mother would rather be on AT&T though (she likes AT&T better, she thinks Verizon is predatory but I was able to convince her to go on to my VZW plan). |
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cchhat01Dr. Zoidberg
join:2001-05-01
Elmhurst, NY Reviews:
·RCN CABLE
·Earthlink Cable ..
| reply to Mizzat
Re: This is the kind of shit that makes me wanna move to... And that is what I mean. Thanks for that tidbit that sums up the response that everyone has when someone tries to make a legitimate point.
When did we simply decide to not care? If people here can see the "problem" with mergers, why isn't it that we can't take action to ensure that such mergers don't go through.
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"Look at me, I'm Dr. Zoidberg, homeowner." |
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| Gobble! They were going to Gobble somebody up. Maybe T-Mobile will finally aquire MetroPCS and maybe LEAP? |
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2 edits | reply to cchhat01
Re: This is the kind of shit that makes me wanna move to... I'd prefer to see little remnants of something that used to be that wasn't doing anything or going anywhere get acquired by someone like AT&T. I hate small little regional carriers.
This will help AT&T in some of those markets if they are acquiring 850mhz or 700mhz where they didn't have it before. I'd rather see them get it than it going to waste.
And yes I live in a market where a small regional carrier called Centennial got bought out by AT&T. Centennial was GSM only, had a blanket 850mhz (AT&T did not have 850mhz) network that was going to waste because they weren't going to do anything cool with it (like launch HSPA). I also hated their plans and how they went about things. Ever since they were acquired things have been much much better.
Also in my market, USCC got bought out by Sprint which i am also glad to see because Sprint was crippled here due to lack of spectrum. Now Sprint will become a lot better which i prefer since they are more "national" than USCC (who i used to have as a provider and hated roaming everywhere else i went).
This small Alltel network isn't supposed to exist anyways because it was divested, it's just that no one bothered with picking it up until now so i don't know what the hell the fuss is all about. |
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 LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | reply to morbo
Re: Does this deal require Government approval? said by morbo:It's unclear from this article: does AT&T's plans to acquire Alltel require government approval? If so, is it anticipated to be approved easily?
It needs FCC approval for sure. Will it need DOJ approval for anti-trust purposes? I expect they have to sign off too, but a small deal like this may just be an automatic DOJ approval.
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A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. |
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LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | reply to spewak
Re: "Awaken the Kracken!!!" said by spewak:Granted nobody but AT&T really knows how much spectrum AT&T really needs, and competitors and consumer advocates alike continue to worry that AT&T is simply using their deep pockets to acquire additional spectrum to prevent new competitors from entering the market.
Nailed it!
They need the spectrum says Deloitte:
»Deloitte: Spectrum Issues to Cause Network Congestion
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A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. |
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LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | reply to cchhat01
Re: This is the kind of shit that makes me wanna move to... said by cchhat01:another country... If the FCC approves this kind of crap then I will definitely contemplate moving to another country.
Seriously. Is it critical or vital for AT&T to go ahead and acquire another wireless carrier to survive.
Go f***ing ahead and kill anything that remotely resembles competition. F***ing A**holes.
You are not being serious - just trying to make a point. Nobody, of sound judgement anyway, moves to another country because of cellphone service.
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A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. |
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| Still costs 20 cents per text message. Maybe with all this extra spectrum, they will finally lower their horrendously overpriced texting charges. I think the odds are greater that I'd win the powerball lottery. |
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Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·DIRECTV
·Optimum Online
·Cablevision
| reply to zephxiii
Re: This is the kind of shit that makes me wanna move to... For a company this small, only half a million customers. I don't see this as being a big deal.
I'm more concerned about the only real competition to AT&T and Verizon, which is T-mobile and Sprint I think we need to make sure they have access to more spectrum as well.
Sadly the small regional wireless carriers just don't have the resources to keep up with the big 4 in a time of fairly rapidly evolving data networks. |
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LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | said by MovieLover76:For a company this small, only half a million customers. I don't see this as being a big deal.
I'm more concerned about the only real competition to AT&T and Verizon, which is T-mobile and Sprint I think we need to make sure they have access to more spectrum as well.
Sadly the small regional wireless carriers just don't have the resources to keep up with the big 4 in a time of fairly rapidly evolving data networks.
Evidently Sprint has plenty of spectrum with more on the way in pending deals.
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A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. |
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