Verizon Chief Defends AT&T-T-Mobile Merger 128
The proposed merger of AT&T with T-Mobile doesn't impress everyone as a good idea; in particular, Sprint has filed suit to stop the merger, and while hardly a disinterested party, they're not alone in claiming that the resulting megacompany would harm customers. Verizon is taking a different tack; tekgoblin passes along this excerpt: "Verizon Communications chief executive Lowell McAdam has announced that he is supporting the AT&T T-Mobile merger. He warned that the Government has no choice but to let the deal go though unless they want to fix the current spectrum problems. He went on to say 'We need to be very thoughtful on what the impacts would be to the overall industry if this is a way to regulate the industry without actually passing regulation.' The current telcos need more wireless spectrum to continue expanding and operating efficiently so they have resorted to acquiring other companies."
Re:This makes perfect sense (Score:4, Informative)
Freepress.net has a lovely illustration of the history of the baby bells.
http://www.freepress.net/files/att_history.jpg [freepress.net]
Re:Doesn't the consumer lose regardless? (Score:4, Informative)
The funny thing is that T-Mobile used to be affiliated with Sprint.
Global One Communications was a conglomerate of Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, and T-Mobile and Orange trace their roots there.
T-Mobile USA, on the other hand, is basically the old PN Voicestream network, which was bought up by T-Mobile, a subsidiary of DT, and has little to do with T-Mobile, except the current ownership.
AT&T buying T-Mobile USA is really AT&T buying the remains of Pacific Northwest that it hasn't already sucked up and reincorporated like a Terminator robot.
Confused yet? Not after the next episode of Telesoap!