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AT&T Again Defends T-Mobile Deal Before Congress
Using the Exact Same Canned Speech
Earlier this month AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson defended his company's planned $39 billion acquisition before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. "This transaction is all about consumers," Stephenson said under oath. "It's about keeping up with consumer demand. It's about having the capacity to drive innovation and competitive prices for consumers." Stephenson's script writers apparently are on vacation, because the CEO gave the exact same speech today before the House Judiciary Committee. Stephenson continues to insist the elimination of T-Mobile from the marketplace will expand mobile broadband coverage, lower prices, somehow increase competition and create jobs -- claims that, unfortunately for AT&T, hardly anyone believes.
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Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

When Will They Learn?

That nobody except AT&T and maybe T-Mobile wants this merger!

OSUGoose
join:2007-12-27
Columbus, OH

OSUGoose

Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

Well at least he's staying on message, something thats hard for some politicans to even do.

drew
Radiant
Premium Member
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA

drew to Gbcue

Premium Member

to Gbcue
I'm very thrilled that there's a chance that all T-Mobile customers will finally be on a robust network.

del ftl
@comcast.net

del ftl

Anon

Re: When Will They Learn?

Aside from coverage which current tmo customers don't particularly care about or they wouldn't be using tmo right now. What benefits does ATT offer?

drew
Radiant
Premium Member
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA

drew

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

You must be new here.

I give you: »/nsear ··· vanced=1

delusion ftl
@tmodns.net

delusion ftl

Anon

Re: When Will They Learn?

Oh I know, i got the joke But it really got me thinking. I'm very familiar with all the major carriers what they offer and their policies and I'm struggling to find any benefits to tmo customers from the buyout. I can come up with at least a dozen things that tmo does better or offers their customers that att doesn't, all of which will probably be dropped/removed/dismissed sometime after the merger. But outside of "coverage" which is a red herring in the industry, and devices which vary by any carrier, I cannot find any other things att offers their customers that tmobile does not.

C0deZer0
Oc'D To Rhythm And Police
Premium Member
join:2001-10-03
Tempe, AZ

C0deZer0 to drew

Premium Member

to drew
said by drew:

I'm very thrilled that there's a chance that all T-Mobile customers will finally be on a robust network reamed beyond belief like those of us stuck with AT&T.

Fixed that for ya.

Does this deal actually improve the backhaul that AT&T has traditionally spent far too little on? No.

Does this deal actually ensure improved infrastructure, to support the now larger pool of users they would have combined? No.

Does this deal improve on the viability of competition for GSM wireless providers in the United States? No, and on this note alone it should be barred from happening, as it's a clear violation of anti-trust/anti-competitive laws that have been in place since before Microsoft existed.

AT&T can't even get their advertised rates correct, and insist on hiding tons of "regulatory taxes and fees" under microscopically fine print... which, if they are so actually required to be paid for, why are they not on the advertised rate? Why can't any sales associate either on the phone or in their stores tell me what I would be paying per month, ever... even when they are using the exact same phone(s) I intend on buying?

It's like AT&T is actively trying to find ways to screw over and irritate their current and former customers.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

If AT&T sucked so bad as everyone says they would have been out of business long ago. There are many people including myself that have great service with AT&T.

Elector
join:2000-05-25
Albany, NY

Elector

Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

Actually AT&T was in Bankruptcy before. So they were almost out of business. Secondly when the courts broke up the ATT and Local Bell systems AT&T was the biggest loser.

Funny before the break up phone prices were high but stable. The so called break-up which was touted as so good for competition and for innovations, became the fore runner for higher and more confusing pricing, more complicated to use, and just not that good for the consumer.

The AT&T and T-Mobile venture is only good for the companies involved and the stock holders which will see that higher prices and more ways to screw your money out of you prevails.

Sort of like the Sirius-XM merger which was a joke since with only one company offering the satellite services you know the lies of lower prices, and better innovation and customer services is a joke. Please note SIRIUS-XM lost a class action suit due to the new lower prices that never appeared. Do a web search on the lawsuit and see what AT&T and T-Mobile customers can expect.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx to drew

Member

to drew
said by drew:

I'm very thrilled that there's a chance that all T-Mobile customers will finally be on a robust network.

You have always had that option. Switch to AT&T or Verizon. However, be prepared to bend over to pay for that privilege. Those who can live with T-Mobile's smaller footprint AND like value are the ones getting screwed.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue to drew

Premium Member

to drew
said by drew:

I'm very thrilled that there's a chance that all T-Mobile customers will finally be on a robust network.

I bet AT&T doesn't even have a worldwide WiFi calling network, when, combined with Google Voice, nets you free (Canada) to low-cost calling anywhere without roaming charges.

EnasYorl
Thieves World
join:2001-12-02
West
·Ziply Fiber
Motorola MB8600
Netgear RAX15
Asus RT-AC66

EnasYorl to drew

Member

to drew
said by drew:

I'm very thrilled that there's a chance that all T-Mobile customers will finally be on a robust network.

Guess you've not done much research. »www.stangnet.com/mustang ··· nce.html

Exodus
Your Daddy
Premium Member
join:2001-11-26
Earth

Exodus

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

You're right, drew should have known to go to the mustang forums for information about the t-mobile network changes.

EnasYorl
Thieves World
join:2001-12-02
West

EnasYorl

Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

www.google.com to confirm what I already knew.

exattcust
@wavecable.com

exattcust to drew

Anon

to drew
Until you find out how horrible AT&T is.
Expand your moderator at work
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA to Gbcue

Premium Member

to Gbcue
And most of their customers. There are always a few fringe lunatics who will oppose.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

1 edit

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

said by BiggA:

And most of their customers. There are always a few fringe lunatics who will oppose.

Yeah, us "fringe lunatics" who don't like getting raped in the a** with outrageous billing and corporate double-speak and crippled phones.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

Service that's cheaper than the competitor, with phones like my Captivate that is running close to stock firmware, rooted, on 2.3.3, or the NAM Nexus S that are clearly crippled. Right.

You need to travel more if you are happy with the coverage. I don't want to be on vacation and have SOS-only or roaming half the time.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

said by BiggA:

You need to travel more if you are happy with the coverage. I don't want to be on vacation and have SOS-only or roaming half the time.

Now you're just reaching.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi to BiggA

Premium Member

to BiggA
said by BiggA:

Service that's cheaper than the competitor, with phones like my Captivate that is running close to stock firmware, rooted, on 2.3.3, or the NAM Nexus S that are clearly crippled. Right.

You need to travel more if you are happy with the coverage. I don't want to be on vacation and have SOS-only or roaming half the time.

LOL. Over the last 7 years with T-Mobile I've not had any problem with service and I travel quite a bit. I'd rather not pay double the price for service that I don't need. We've already been over that, you advocate a juggling of plans and magic voodoo in order to use your minutes carefully, a task I'd rather not have to worry about. So you rooted your phone and put on a custom ROM... Why? If the phone wasn't crippled by AT&T you shouldn't have needed to use a custom ROM.

For the thousandth time: I get the service I want and need for nearly half the price of AT&T and I've been a very happy customer for over 7 years. It is obvious you love AT&T. You either work for them or you're a zealot customer. That's great that their service works so well for you. It doesn't for me. That's that.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

T-Mobile is almost as expensive as AT&T, and they have a small fraction of the coverage. A single user on AT&T is $85/mo, T-Mobile was $80 last I checked.

There's no voodoo magic to just getting a crapload of minutes with your plan since you have to on any carrier to get data and text and then using some of them, and nights and weekends and M2M are free anyways, so that takes off a lot of them anyways.

You pretty much have to have custom ROMs all around if you want a good experience with Android, unless its one of the few uncrippled phones out there.

I just want good service, and I get it with AT&T.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

said by BiggA:

T-Mobile is almost as expensive as AT&T, and they have a small fraction of the coverage. A single user on AT&T is $85/mo, T-Mobile was $80 last I checked.

There's no voodoo magic to just getting a crapload of minutes with your plan since you have to on any carrier to get data and text and then using some of them, and nights and weekends and M2M are free anyways, so that takes off a lot of them anyways.

You pretty much have to have custom ROMs all around if you want a good experience with Android, unless its one of the few uncrippled phones out there.

I just want good service, and I get it with AT&T.

Really?

T-Mobile (500 Minutes, Unlimited text, 5GB of throttled data): $79.99
AT&T (450 Minutes, Unlimited text, 2GB of OVERAGE data): $84.99

Big difference. With AT&T, you get less minutes, less data, and overages.

Just for kicks:
T-Mobile (Unlimited Minutes, Unlimited text, 5GB of throttled data): $89.99
AT&T (Unlimited Minutes, Unlimited text, 2GB of OVERAGE data): $114.99
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

You proved my point. More or less the same plan for more or less the same price, but AT&T has much more coverage.

@fuziwuzi: AT&T has unlimited texting, and you get 450 minutes a month, so those shouldn't be an issue. For the extreme talkers, there's a 900 minute plan with A-List, so that's effectively unlimited. If you had AT&T too, you could talk to them unlimited with M2M.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

450 or 900 minutes =! unlimited

Most of my voice usage is with my partner in China. He uses a Magicjack to call me, we regularly talk 3+ hours at a time, several times a week. On AT&T I would not have any "rollover" minutes, your mobile-to-mobile option would not benefit me. My parents use a landline (not served by AT&T), as does most of the rest of my family around the country.

Regardless, AT&T is nearly double the price of T-Mobile for the plan that I want/need. None of your ridiculous spinning will change that fact. I don't want to pay more money for less service. There is absolutely nothing on AT&T that would benefit me in any way. AT&T would cost me significantly more money for less service.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: When Will They Learn?

450 is a LOT of minutes, especially considering you get unlimited AnyMobile and unlimited M2M. 900 is, unless you are a business or a drug dealer (which is a business of a sort) is unlimited, since you get A-List, so you have 900 minutes to use on numbers other than your top 10 landlines during the week. You would have to be doing several thousand a month to get anywhere near the 900, and any normal user won't go over 200 with that plan because of A-List. The vast majority of normal users would still be rolling over minutes on the 450 plan.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA
Hitron EN2251
Nest H2D

fuziwuzi to BiggA

Premium Member

to BiggA
said by BiggA:

T-Mobile is almost as expensive as AT&T, and they have a small fraction of the coverage. A single user on AT&T is $85/mo, T-Mobile was $80 last I checked.

There's no voodoo magic to just getting a crapload of minutes with your plan since you have to on any carrier to get data and text and then using some of them, and nights and weekends and M2M are free anyways, so that takes off a lot of them anyways.

You pretty much have to have custom ROMs all around if you want a good experience with Android, unless its one of the few uncrippled phones out there.

I just want good service, and I get it with AT&T.

I want great service and I get that with T-Mobile, for nearly half the price of what I would pay at AT&T.

Unlimited Anytime calling + Unlimited Text + Unlimited (throttled at 5GB) data = $79.99

And I don't have to wait until 9pm to talk to my friends or family, I don't have to worry if I have enough roll-over minutes, I don't have to look at my usage to make sure I have enough minutes left to make a call. I don't have to worry if my data usage is approaching 2GB and will get smacked with an extra fee for going over. I get great service everywhere I travel, and T-Mobile even gave me the unlock code for my phone for free so when I go to foreign countries I can simply purchase a cheap pre-paid SIM while there.

I have a bunch of friends on AT&T because they're addicted to iPhone. With every one of them I can't call them until after 9pm weeknights "because I'm almost out of minutes this month", once month they're posting to their friends on Facebook, "don't text me until next week, I'm out of texts this month". And they pay more each month than I do for that.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5 to Gbcue

Premium Member

to Gbcue
said by Gbcue:

That nobody except AT&T and maybe T-Mobile wants this merger!

I don't agree. Many customers will like the merger because it will improve their coverage in many areas.

••••••••••••
GraysonPeddi
Grayson Peddie
join:2010-06-28
Tallahassee, FL

GraysonPeddi

Member

3G

Well let me ask you this:

What states have 3G access besides California, New York, and Florida (limited number of cities)?

I think limited 3G access across the entire country is the problem and that the AT&T&T deal will not help.

•••

HaloFans
join:2006-12-18

HaloFans

Member

LOL merging a company creates jobs?

Hahaha.

•••

liaa
@comcast.net

liaa

Anon

att buys congress gets what they want anyway.........

so we get higher rates and can't do lawsuit if we don't like att service that i can't get signal in my area worth a crap anyway that why i left them. so contract over with tm i get go to the other guys what left that is lmao

NOCMan
MadMacHatter
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Colorado Springs, CO

NOCMan

Premium Member

AT&T Will Cut Jobs not "Create"

Point out any major telecom merger where thousands have not lost their jobs due to the merger. They're full of it.

••••
FrontirCynic
join:2006-10-25
Long Beach, CA

FrontirCynic

Member

one audience

AT&T only needs to convince key players and Justice Dept and in congress. the rest of you they could care less about. just pay your bill. Or the death star will terminate you

tmh
@qwest.net

tmh

Anon

Re: one audience

said by FrontirCynic:

AT&T only needs to convince pay key players and Justice Dept and in congress. the rest of you they could care less about. just pay your bill. Or the death star will terminate you

Fixed.
FrontirCynic
join:2006-10-25
Long Beach, CA

FrontirCynic

Member

Re: one audience

I like how direct bribery/pay off's of politicians works in many countries. its efficient. You pay you play. Here in the USA with our wonderful "exportable" "democracy" we have to disguise it and call it lobbying, campaign contributions, "swift boating", 527's, "information campaigns", bus tours and astroturfing etc.

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

buddahbless

Member

ATT plays with words and your emotions...

Anyone see the recent ATT commercial ( with all the orange flower growing)? I always, laugh when I see/read the part where they say were building new towers and spending Billions on it and improvements. I LOL when I know the truth, there not building there own for billions there buying out the competition, and in there world that means there building it them self and spending billions on it for there customers, what a joke...

cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26

cork1958

Premium Member

Create jobs?

What kind of goof ball is that guy? Create jobs from a merger? That would totally defeat half the purpose of merging!!

When I had T-Mobile last year, it was a great service. Easily better than Verizon in my area of use and AT&T doesn't cover anything right here, in my neck of the woods.

GNH
I know my limitations.
Premium Member
join:1999-12-20
Canyon Lake, TX

GNH

Premium Member

Is Justice Blind?

We'll see.

Simple. If Dish and DirecTV can merge, then at&t can absorb T-Mobile. {{Resistance is futile.}}
lefty1
join:2002-10-25
Clay, NY

lefty1

Member

AT&T

Any new jobs AT&T creates, which is dubious, will be in the Philippines and India. The number of their US employees continues to shrink. Eventually only installers and maintenance personnel will be based in the US.

The only thing AT&T cares about is profit, and there is nothing they won't do to increase it.

EnasYorl
Thieves World
join:2001-12-02
West
·Ziply Fiber
Motorola MB8600
Netgear RAX15
Asus RT-AC66

EnasYorl

Member

42 Mbps is slow?

»T-Mobile Drops 42 Mbps HSPA+ On 50 Cities [43] comments

+

»www.stangnet.com/mustang ··· nce.html

=

42 Mbps HSPA+

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: 42 Mbps is slow?

Who said it was slow?

EnasYorl
Thieves World
join:2001-12-02
West

EnasYorl

Member

Re: 42 Mbps is slow?

There was a comment that T-mobile would be faster after AT&T took them over. My point was they are already at 42Mbps using Fiber to the Tower.

michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru

Premium Member

Hmm

Well at least this merger makes sense vs the whole Sprint and Nextel merger which at a technological standpoint did not make sense.

Personally the pro's and cons I see as followed:

Pro's:
Improved coverage and licensing for tower utilization

3G coverage now available in certain markets where spectrum blocking affected either party (such as Camp Lejeune, NC due to military base)

Manufacturers can streamline the chips on there GSM/LTE phones to provide frequencies for just one GSM/LTE carrier vs two reducing overall production cost

Global market penetration, by expanding to europe and asia

Con's

Companies during mergers do layoffs and restructuring and shift employee's around causing jobloss and sometimes gains, the majority that will be affected is call centers and sales associates, with closing of stores due to nearby AT&T stores and reduced call center sizes.

Loss of a market player, prices are now set by AT&T and not of two companies, the loss of competition gives AT&T an iron grasp and more control of market pricing which can swing in two directions but with inflation and AT&T practices, this will have a negative effect in my opinion.

Claims of increased jobs in a company are not necessarily U.S jobs but jobs in other countries by foreign employees

AT&T is known for preventing startups and states from creating their own municipal fiber including local government that stiffle competition to the carrier further stabilizing a monopoly of the market in not only wireless but also landline data services.
FrontirCynic
join:2006-10-25
Long Beach, CA

FrontirCynic

Member

"we got your proof right here..."

ATT says its right here in this envelope...dont mind all that cash in the envelope

»www.bloomberg.com/news/2 ··· age.html