
AT&T Drops T-Mobile USA Deal - marklabedz
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204791104577108900032431264.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
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Xuzz
I asked this on Twitter, but perhaps I'll get better responses here:

T-mobile is dying; it has _no_ plans for the future. They don't have the
iPhone (and are unlikely to get it, due to working on a different set of 3G
frequencies). They don't have any plans for LTE deployment, unlike AT&T,
Verizon, and Sprint. Their parent company wants to get rid of them.

To me, this just seems like the government has done very little here for
consumers, they will still likely end up with only 2-3 carriers. Why is it
better for consumers if T-mobile just dies out rather than is bought to
improve AT&T? (Also, many people think AT&T has a worse network than Verizon.
Wouldn't this deal have, then, increased competition?)

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nextparadigms
I think a lot of people said the same thing when the banks started merging,
too. And look where that got the US economy because of "too big too fail
banks".

I would've preferred capitalism followed its natural course, and let one or
two smaller banks die, than to get in a situation where a handful of _huge_
banks can wipe out the entire economy if they are allowed to fail.

The thing about capitalism is that it _needs_ to let parts of it fail, so it
can thrive overall and in the long term.

Also, I don't think T-mobile will disappear. Worst case scenario it will be
bought by an international carrier, but at a smaller price.

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maratd
There is really no such thing as too big to fail. In the case of the
"financial crisis", the few failing banks should have been allowed to fail.
Some were and the sky did not fall. There were plenty of sound ones who were
not involved in the nonsense. The same can be said for the automotive
industry. The bailouts were nothing more than a transfer of wealth
orchestrated by the government. From the middle class and the wealthy, to the
incompetent clowns in the government and private industry who created the mess
in the first place.

There is absolutely nothing worse for the people at large than the collusion
between government and the private enterprise. It is very simply the
definition of corruption. Read the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith for more
love.

As for AT&T and T-Mobile, the government created the problem in the first
place. By selling spectrum, they necessitate the existence of large massive
companies in the space. They're the only ones who can afford the spectrum. If
the government instead chose to keep the spectrum open, like say the way they
do for WiFi, you would literally be able to start your own cellphone company
in your garage ... and there would naturally be quite a bit more players in
the space. They would still need to cooperate to make things work, but having
more choices is the goal here.

If you look hard enough, behind every market problem and failure, you'll find
a fat bureaucrat and fat "business man" working together to keep each other
fat and the rest of us miserable.

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wanorris
> There is really no such thing as too big to fail.

Yes, actually there is. Too big to fail means that when an institution fails,
its default will cause a cascade failure of other institutions relying on it
-- and still other institutions relying on those -- including otherwise
healthy ones whose only mistake was being integrated with the world economy.

This can ripple through the whole economy and work in tandem with the Paradox
of Deleveraging to effectively cause a GDP death spiral. (See also: Great
Depression.)

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cjdavis
The more accurate term would be Too Big To LET Fail * , but the acronym starts
getting unwieldy.

* [Or The #### Will Really Hit The Fan]

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geuis
Please, don't submit stories that exist behind pay or subscribe walls.

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MichaelApproved
I would generally agree with this but, in this case, the headline tells it
all.

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cyrus_
What if Google bought T-Mobile (or Sprint)? They are certainly interested in
the telecom space -- look at their investments in fiber-to-the-home and
products like Google Voice. Together with their purchase of Motorola, they
would be vertically-integrated too, which would allow them to do all sorts of
borderline-creepy things with ads.

Of course this might spook the government, or turn Verizon or AT&T away from
Android in retaliation, but its an interesting idea I think.

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ConstantineXVI
Google buying them would be even worse for competition than AT&T. It'd be a
total closed loop: Google OS, Google handsets, Google network, Google
services. John Rockefeller could only dream of that sort of integration.

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orangecat
Not if Google agreed to run it purely as a dumb pipe.

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resnamen
Ah, a dumb pipe carrier. Why hasn't one materialized already? I was saying
that it was inevitable at least a decade ago.

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thatjoshguy
> Ah, a dumb pipe carrier. Why hasn't one materialized already? I was saying
> that it was inevitable at least a decade ago.

Plenty have materialised. Just not in the US. The three carriers in Aus are
pretty much dumb pipes.

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BadassFractal
US phone plans are still crap compared to what's available in EU. We pay a lot
for little service, and are locked out of using the latest phones on most
networks unless we're willing to sign up for ludicrous plans that's really
hard to get out of.

I've been happy with Virgin Mobile, I'm not willing to pay more than 35 a
month, even though the service might be choppy at best.

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pkulak
The United States is 1.6 times the area of Europe, but more importantly,
Europe has 3 times the population density! It just costs a lot more money over
here to cover the same number of people with cell service.

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simoncion
The population density argument is bunk. Why does ATT provide utter crap for
cell service in NYC and SF?

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jrockway
Probably because the places where you want to use your phone (inside
buildings, in the subway) attenuate all radio signals.

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icebraining
Here in Lisbon we have antennas inside the subway tunnels since 2006.

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MichaelApproved
I made a $500 bet with options that this deal wouldn't go through. I was right
about the outcome but unfortunately I was wrong about the timing.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351157>

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NHQ
The US Government should buy T-Mobile and turn it into a nationwide
information super freeway.

