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Sprint to Battle Proposed AT&T / T-Mobile Merger

Article Comments  100+  

Mar 22, 2011, 4:21 PM   by Eric M. Zeman
updated Mar 22, 2011, 4:54 PM

Speaking at the CTIA Wireless trade show, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said that the company plans to file its concerns about the proposed AT&T / T-Mobile merger with the U.S. government. It believes the merger will "stifle competition" and AT&T will have "tremendous power." If allowed to go through, AT&T and Verizon Wireless would control 79% of the entire U.S. market. On Monday, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee (which oversees anti-trust concerns) announced plans to hold a hearing on the merger. The merger needs regulatory approval to proceed. A combined AT&T / T-Mobile entity would have approximately 130 million customers, more than double Sprint's approximate 60 million customers.

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mycool

Mar 23, 2011, 8:30 AM

Just turn them into utilities and regulate the sh*t out of them

Turn them into utilities, regulate them VERY HEAVILY and have MVNOs compete for our business.

Problem solved πŸ™‚
This may come to that eventually. The only problem is the pricing strategies for affordable price plans and the choices for handsets could suffer.

John B.
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You mean like the way they regulate everything else? restrict one company to one service area, allow them to jack up the prices after a government imposed monopoly occurs, restrict competition to only companies that fit very limited government require...
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the government deregulated the communications industry in 1996. notice at&t and verizon have quietly bought up all the smaller companies that were originally divested from at&t in 1974?
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netboy

Mar 22, 2011, 4:52 PM

this is starting to get stupid!

of course prices will go up, but you also get better coverage! i been to places where there' no att signals, only tmobile signals pop up. i unable to connect cus att wont allow it! after merger i will be able to connect to tmobile towers! NICE!
it' not about prices, it' about coverage!
i rather pay a little more to get better coverage. or you can switch to sprint with cheaper plan but with less coverage! haha
good for you but we dont all have parents who pay our wireless bills and not all of us crap gold bricks
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I agree..I think the merger will go just fine..And for all those whining crybabies if you don't like it don't buy it or if you have AT&T or T-Mobile and feel pisssy about it just leave them,no one is forcing you to have them or any other carrier for t...
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So if the millions of tmobile customers who are happy with the coverage and don't need more, should pay more because....? They might be getting something more, but it's something more they don't need or want. But now the won't have the choice for them...
(continues)
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you're right, i bet coverage will be awesome with att/tmobile. Prices probably won't go up in the short term, i'm sure everything will default to current at&t pricing. But you fail to realize that over time, with AT&T and verizon holding 80 percent of...
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What I wonder is how much room & tolerance do people have both emotionally and financially for more costly wireless service. That's what I wonder. If prices were to get higher, it WILL drive people away, no doubt about that. People do have OTHER bills...
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Vincent513

Mar 22, 2011, 4:34 PM

Sprint is scared lol !!!!!

Sprint stop it !!! If AT&T has the billions to buy T- Mobile then it's not ur biz... AT&T will always be ahead of Sprint sorry !!
Sprint aside, the only ppl this is good for are at&t execs. As someone who lives in the US (im assuming, you might not) you should be pro choice and competition..neither of which this merger is good for.
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Are you in middle school or something? There's a bit more to macroeconomics than yelling "NUN OF UR BIZNES!" like a twelve year old little girl.
but in 1974 "ma bell" as at&t was known was broken up by the gov in an antitrust lawsuit. at&t was forced to divest itself into smaller "baby bells." well guess what dude? all those "baby bells" are owned by at&t again, except for a few that are owned...
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teedawgg

Mar 22, 2011, 5:45 PM

Sprint needs to STFU and Get out of others business

I don't find it fair that Sprint is trying to stop another company from growing, because they can't keep their customers on their network.

This is going to benefit so many people, In my area, the combined AT&T/T-Mobile towers is going to finally make signal what both company's should have, I have had both AT&T and T-Mobile, and the Tampa bay area I live in has completely different coverage for both carriers... The combination is going to be great.

AT&T is rapidly developing, and compared to Verizon, AT&T is much less expensive a month... Sure, for now you get unlimited data at Verizon; but do you even use enough for that to matter?

It ticks me off that nobody complained when Verizon bought ALLTEL, giving Verizon a SUBSTANTIAL LEAD...
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teedawgg said:
This is going to benefit so many people, In my area, the combined AT&T/T-Mobile towers is going to finally make signal what both company's should have...It ticks me off that nobody complained when Verizon bought ALLT
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Two things bother me about your post.

First and foremost, you agreed to make a commitment to either carrier just for the iPhone(GSM). This normally wouldn't be an issue. The iPhone is a great phone. However this leads me to the second issue.

Th...
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when verizon bought alltel, alltel was actually split up between at&t and verizon. this is going to be a great thing for at&t and tmobile because they'll both be filthy rich (even moreso than they already are) and verizon will be happy to share 80% of...
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er... dawg or whatever...
Actually it IS Sprint's business. Quite literally. And how is CDMA slower again? Last I checked there were like 5 phones that take advantage of any so called speed increase over CDMA. Oh and good luck using it. You probably ...
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bigdfan70

Mar 22, 2011, 6:32 PM

Sprint you lost get over it lol

Wow Sprint tries to buy tmobile and thats ok,they get outbid by At&t and now crying like babies lol.You got your ass handed to you again Sprint its knowones fault but yours now stop crying!!!! 🀣
Way to make my eyes bleed by typing the word "knowones" - did that seriously look correct to you? But that's ok thanks for not making me waste time trying to explain to you why this is bad for every consumer.
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i guess its ok for them to buy nextel but they get booty hurt when att goes for tmo...and like u said didnt they try that first πŸ™„
comander60

Mar 24, 2011, 7:37 AM

controling cell phones

When did we as a people, degenerate to allowing a cell phone to control our every waking moment? It's not a life support system folks. πŸ™„
Troll-Bait

Mar 23, 2011, 11:05 AM

Cricket, Lightsquared, MetroPCS, Sprint, Verizon, US Cellular, Tracfone

Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Net10....


Those are just off the top of my head.

Some of those companies are MVNO's, some of them have networks built from the ground up.

Lightsquared is an AMAZING idea that should be coming to fruition soon providing national LTE coverage wholesale to just about any company who wants it. It essentially opens the doors for a TON of competition in the market from startups and existing companies alike.

This whole "monopoly", "duopoly" thing is simply a scare tactic stemming from companies who don't want to lose their market share. Feeding your fears and making you panic before even stopping and thinking it through.

UNLESS the government gets involved, there is no such thing as a monopoly.
ie, utility companies.
...
at&t is almost a monopoly again in some areas with their residential services, but that's not their fault. at&t and verizon are becoming a duopoly it seems and the industry is already somewhat of an oligopoly, but this is not the fault of "evil" at&t....
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I have a feeling we are going to have this back and forth on this issue for weeks until the Feds make a decision one way or another. Neither side will be swayed.
pickles

Mar 22, 2011, 7:15 PM

this is like the ONE TIME i have ever sided with sprint

on almost anything. I want to believe that the government really does want to maintain competition in a free market, but at the same time I'm nervous that they'll actually approve this. It would be GREAT for at&t and tmobile, i'm sure they would still have a lot of great phones, and i'm sure their network speeds and coverage would improve tenfold. But with sprint as the only major contender to AT&T/verizon, how long would it take until they were no longer able to even compete? Just scares me, as I'm sure it scares a lot of us who are actually looking at this from the consumer's standpoint.
The amazing part of this is, the wireless industry wants no part of congress meddling in their business, yet they are right their to cut them checks and lobby them for compassion.

Pathetic.

John B.
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Sprint won't have to worry about the competition point. Verizon is keeping its mouth shut about AT&T/T-Mobile because it knows if that passes, Verizon will be allowed to buy Sprint.
It would scare me as an AT&T or T-Mobile employee. Someone's neck will be snapped to gain synergies. AT&T employees should already know.
remember the merger between nextel and sprint .... πŸ™„
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AndroidRules

Mar 22, 2011, 4:53 PM

Dear Sprint

You should tend to your own garden before complaining about someone else's weeds. Why don't you STFU and work on getting out of debt. Clear wants to know where their money is. You made countless bad business decisions and abandoned technologies and do nothing but bleed customers quarter after quarter. You get all these shiny gimmicky devices that you refer to as "innovative" to try lure in custoners but no one wants you because you still suck. Even Big Red doesn't want your sorry a$$.

The deal will go through whether you like it or not. Even Big Red has been quiet, you think the government is gonna listen to your sorry a$$? lmao. Like you matter. Please. I strongly suggest you start upgrading to LTE as soon as possible and continue on wi...
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Truly spoken like someone who has no idea what they are talking about smh. -1000 internet points for you, we are all dumber for having read that, and may god have mercy on your soul.
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You should tend to your own garden before complaining about someone else's weeds. Why don't you STFU and work on learning abou the wireless industry.

I'd go on more but you get the point. I'm not even a fan of sprint, but it seems to me Sprint ma...
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Wow, you really have no idea WTF you are talking about.
you're an idiot. OF COURSE "big red" has been quiet, if this happens verizon and at&t will share almost 80 percent of the US market. congratulations, you know NOTHING about the cell phone industry, or industry in general for that matter.
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I will be more candid in my response to you this time around.

Verizon has kept quiet because their negative input would greatly effect the outcome of the merge. They WANT ATT to acquire T-Mobile. This would work to Verizon's adavantage. The closer ...
(continues)
Twelve consecutive quarters of customer satisfaction and growth

Return to pre-2006 cash-on-hand numbers

Revenue equaling in the three billion range

I could go on but doing so would be a waste of breath on a moron. Before you start ranting and...
(continues)
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Is there anyone who knows this complete douche? It'd be really cool if someone hit him with a bat. Repeatedly.
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🀣 🀣 🀣 ! ! !
flip mode

Mar 22, 2011, 4:41 PM

good job sprint

this is killing choice and raising prices
Agreed. I seriously doubt many T-Mobile customers will be happy about this. Just like Sprint, T-Mobile's cheaper priceplans are pratically the only reason for not going with AT&T or Verizon. Fact of the matter is there are many American's that don't c...
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booger666

Mar 23, 2011, 2:08 AM

Whoooo!!!!!!

So AT&T and T-Mobile are getting married. You're all invited. But there will be no reception afterwards.
kvlt_ov_personality

Mar 22, 2011, 10:24 PM

I just saw one of those T-Mobile commercials that bashes AT&T

Lolzzz
furyx639

Mar 22, 2011, 8:22 PM

AT&T acquiring T-Mobile would be a huge mistake.

Verizon already said they don't care what happens to T-Mobile.

AT&T and Sprint both want T-Mobile mostly for their spectrum and customers. AT&T is already the largest carrier, and with T-Mobile they will only become larger.

The mobile industry already basically functions as a duopoly with over 90% of wireless subscribers between AT&T and Verizon.

It makes much more sense for Sprint to acquire T-Mobile just because they both offer similar rate plans (lower than AT&T/Verizon) and it would balance out the power of the big carriers and promote competition.

I see a lot of Sprint-hating posts here, and everything being said is so completely ignorant. Sprint, today, has excellent coverage in most places. They're starting to report custo...
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i kinda forsee a lot of t-mobile customers jumping ship to sprint if this deal actually happens. a lot of t-mobile smartphone customers are gonna hate on at&t data policies and plans, and are probably pretty PO'd right now.
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Cellular Phone

Mar 22, 2011, 7:05 PM

Sprint should buy US Cellular and then they can compete better

A Sprint- USC merger would expand Sprint's coverage, expand it's customer base, and allow it to better compete in the market. Sprint should also look into buying out Cricket and Metro PCS as well.
Actually, Metro PCS could probably buy Sprint easier than Sprint could buy Metro... 🀣
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