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Re: After AT&T lost TMO, it acquired a lot of spectrum for LTE But what they didn't get was to remove a competitor from the market, which is what they really wanted. And not just any competitor but the only other national carrier using GSM/UMTS, which is the only place that disgruntled AT&T users could go without needing to get new phones. |
| said by ISurfTooMuch:But what they didn't get was to remove a competitor from the market, which is what they really wanted. And not just any competitor but the only other national carrier using GSM/UMTS, which is the only place that disgruntled AT&T users could go without needing to get new phones.
It may be news to you, but T-Mobile badly wanted to get out of the US market. It's not like they were victims being taken over by an evil giant.
So now instead, we have Germany, UK, and Japan owning/controlling a majority of our cellular market. Oh, and and Mexico/Carlos Slim, since he controls a huge chunk of the prepaid market. |
| I'm aware that DT wanted out. They felt that T-Mobile USA wasn't performing as well as they wanted. My theory is that this is a problem of their own creation, since they aren't expanding coverage into rural areas, a move that completely eliminates the possibility of getting customers outside big cities and even turns off some city residents who travel to these areas.
However, just because DT was a willing seller and AT&T was a willing buyer, that doesn't mean the deal should have been approved. The reason is that these companies are using a finite, publicly-owned resource: spectrum. They may license it, but it still belongs to us, so they have to receive approval for a deal like that.
As for Japanese, German, British, and Mexican companies owning wireless networks, what's the problem? I have no belief whatsoever that AT&T will treat me any better than them simply because it's based in this country. And, with any publicly-traded company, nationality is an illusion, since, if it's, say, Japanese, and shareholders in the U.S. end up buying a controlling interest, then it's a U.S. company. |
