
FCC approves T-Mobile and Sprint merger - tancik
https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/05/fcc-approves-t-mobile-sprint-merger-despite-serious-concerns/
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rubyn00bie
I really hope Starlink starts a boom in low orbit, low ping, internet
providers... Because that's the only way we're going to see any competition
emerge in wireless telecommunications. This merger is unlikely to do anyone
good, IMHO, and is very likely going to make prices rise in a few years once
the FTC isn't watching them. Look at the very expected level of bullshit AT&T
has done with Dish Network's pricing...

If the government wanted competition they'd figure out a way to make starting
a new wireless carrier cheap by providing network, power, and physical
locations for startups. Reducing the barrier of entry enables more
competition; consolidating spectrum into even fewer hands, more wealthy hands,
does not.

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kunai
This is a perfect example of how Silicon Valley mentality and technocratic
solutions often overcomplicate, to a ridiculous degree, the _mostly solved_
challenge of how to get obtainable and affordable high-speed internet in the
United States.

It's called municipal broadband.[1] Not everything has to be disrupted the way
that SF startup cats want to. There is legitimately no reason you couldn't de-
privatize spectrum and return control to local stakeholders in the same
manner.

[1]: [https://www.thedailybeast.com/chattanooga-has-its-own-
broadb...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/chattanooga-has-its-own-broadbandwhy-
doesnt-every-city)

~~~
rhino369
My municipality cannot even deliver water without making our kids mentally
disabled from lead poisoning. Not sure I want them with a monopoly on telecoms
too.

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kunai
The average American "small-government" ruling class mentality chronically
starves public goods and the commons from widely available resources, and then
points to the failure of said services and goods as a reason why government
cannot work. Eliminate this vicious circle and you see massive benefits;
Chattanooga's municipal ISP has been extremely successful and popular.

Also, municipal broadband or publicly owned broadband would not, on its own,
confer a monopoly. There are numerous examples of industries and market
sectors where a public option coexists with market options. This is commonly
seen as the most likely solution to the healthcare crisis in the United States
today.

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rayiner
> chronically starves public goods and the commons from widely available
> resources, and then points to the failure of said services and goods as a
> reason why government cannot work

This is the lie that people trot out to explain the myriad failures of
American government. Our schools suck because they’re “underfunded.” Oh,
actually, they’re among the best funded:
[https://images.app.goo.gl/r4QwEWefuP34DZSj8](https://images.app.goo.gl/r4QwEWefuP34DZSj8).
Our public transit sucks because it’s “underfunded.” Oh, the New York Subway
receives far more public funding than say London’s tube:
[https://nypost.com/2018/11/06/the-cure-for-new-yorks-
ailing-...](https://nypost.com/2018/11/06/the-cure-for-new-yorks-ailing-
transit-system). If California could build HSR for what it costs France, half
the line would already be done for the $6 billion already spent. There isn’t a
failure of government that can’t be explained away by lying about its funding
levels.

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chowyuncat
That first graph has no meaning without some granularity. Plot success of
school against actual funding. It could easily represent 9 schools with 1000
per student and one school with 9000000 per student and result in 90 percent
failing schools.

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pc2g4d
Say it ain't so :-( T-Mobile doesn't need to merge its DNA with that of
Sprint.

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scarface74
Seeing how well T-mobile managed the MetroPCS merger compared to the Nextel
Sprint merger, I have high hopes.

Within a year or so, T-mobile moved all of Metro’s customers to its network
and took advantage of MetroPCS’s bandwidth.

Sprint kept Nextel’s network limping along for years.

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ars
Sprint was on the verge of going out of business, they basically had no choice
but to approve the merger, sprint's assets would have been sold either way.

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nradov
I think this is generally a good thing for consumers. One strong company with
a solid network can provide more effective competition against Verizon and
AT&T than two weak companies with crappy networks can separately.

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takeda
No it's not, now T-Mobile will have as much leverage as Verizon and AT&T and
will become horrible like them. T-Mobile so far is nice here, but for example
in Germany is one of the despised companies.

The companies don't need to merge to become better for customers. They could
for example have agreements and share their towers to improve each other's
coverage.

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merb
> T-Mobile so far is nice here, but for example in Germany is one of the
> despised companies.

that is bullshit

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dylz
Can you explain why? I am not German but I have fairly significant amount of
infrastructure colo'd in Germany - DTAG/T-Mobile/T-Online/whatever is
obnoxiously bad.

They refuse to peer with neighbouring networks, they hold back deployment of
local connectivity (DSL is still the best you can do in 2019?), they demand
the doubly charge in the way of Netflix v Comcast.

Sending data to/from with any customers on their network (which, of course,
considering how big they are...) costs so much more per megabit due to this
bullshit.

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germanier
Despite that they are still regarded as one of the least bad telcos because
their customer service sucks much less than that of their competitors (e.g.
Telefonica O2, which is a large one, was basically impossible to contact for
most customers for months at a time because of "technical difficulties").
Their mobile network is comparably good and all in all they are seen as the
premium option on the German market.

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thedanbob
I hope this doesn't kill / raise prices for the MVNOs that run on the Sprint
network, specifically Tello. I pay $17 a month total for my and my wife's
phones and I would hate to lose that.

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elamje
I would love to see a startup completely change the game in this space. Google
is the most techy company that I’ve seen have an actual chance at carving away
some customers from the big carriers with Fi. Of course, they are piggy
backing on Sprint/T-Mobile infra, but they have a compelling pitch.

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spectramax
It’s the infrastructure cost. I use Ting in the US which uses brokered network
infrastructure similar to Google Fi.

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freedomben
I also use Ting! Never met another person that used it. Hands down the best
service plan for people that don't use much data/text/minutes. I recently
switched my wife to Mint Mobile because she uses a lot of data, and so far
that has been a good experience.

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jawns
I'm the reverse. I use Mint and my wife uses Ting. Having previously been with
Ting, I've cut my monthly bills in half, from ~$30 to ~$15, with 3GB of data a
month, which is more than enough for me. Granted, with Mint you have to prepay
for a year to get that rate. But it's on the T-Mobile network, and I can't
complain about the coverage!

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rayiner
Quick question. Why do people continue to use Verizon or AT&T when Sprint or
T-Mobile are so much cheaper? It looks like I could cut my Verizon bill in
half by switching to T Mo.

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dylz
I get sub-2 to 3 Mbps speeds on a postpaid business-type T-Mobile plan due to
congestion/oversubscription. This is not in a rural wasteland, but in a major
tech urban city.

Verizon and AT&T do just as badly, but not nearly as much (~8Mbps). Again,
congestion, not because there are no towers nearby. I am on business postpaid
higher tier plans, and should have tower priority according to them.

Sprint coverage disappears completely a few minutes after exiting major
cities.

AT&T has a disgusting transparent proxy that breaks SSL half the time (if you
try to negotiate purely-modern ciphers, your SSL connects typically fail) and
modifies random files/headers in transit if plaintext. They do not/will not
remove it. Plaintext HTTP exits through one IP (shared by an insane amount of
people, seemingly), and all other traffic that it can't tamper with or doesn't
know how to tamper with exits via another IP. This breaks some things.

Incidentally, I am typing this on a hotspot, and as my bus enters downtown CBD
loading web pages (including HN, the lightest page of them all) ha started to
take 10-30 seconds.

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soylentcola
It really does come down to coverage and (as you say)
congestion/oversubscription.

I've used a cheap ($30/mo) prepaid plan on TMo for the past several years and
it's only gotten better in my city. Just ran speed tests on 3 different sites
from my office (with passable signal strength but not "full bars" and without
checking actual numbers).

All three claimed 24-25Mbps download and 5-8Mbps upload with 65-75ms latency.
This is more than enough for my cell phone, but I'd imagine any drops or
latency would be a lot more noticeable if I was tethered to a laptop.

I guess for me, the main uses of cellular data are web browsing and media
streaming when I'm not at home or at the office (when I'd be on WiFi instead).
This is plenty for me and I even get coverage outside of the city these days.
5 years ago I might not have said the same.

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acollins1331
Both these companies are jokes. I had 45 prepaid 4g a month with Sprint and
switched to the a prepaid program with Verizon that costs the same amount but
gives me 16gb a month, and I actually have service on the islands.

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smkellat
And living in my rural area, Sprint and TMO are both weak performers.
Consolidating may make for an okay third carrier.

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mxschumacher
Good timing for Softbank, they are bleeding billions with their investments in
Uber, Slack and WeWork

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Teknoman117
Of course they did.

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bnjms
I know what you mean but I'm not certain Spring was viable long term against
Verizon and Sprint. Hopefully this won't be the end of T-Mobile being somewhat
more pro consumer.

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protomyth
I was told by a T-Mobile person that they are not closing the T-Mobile stores
and the cuts will come from the Sprint side. Hoping that's true since Sprint
is absolutely horrific.

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takeda
It still was an alternative to these 3.

