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You know what? I say bring on the duopoly. All it will do is accelerate the innovation of VoIP.
 
No no no nooo

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/
vader.jpg
 
As much as I love that flow chart every time it pops up, it's not entirely accurate and is even misleading in some areas.

It's more accurate as a flowchart of naming than it is of ownership and even then some things just aren't QUITE right.
 
It's more accurate as a flowchart of naming than it is of ownership and even then some things just aren't QUITE right.

It really doesn't matter that the top USWEST isn't the same company as the bottom USWEST, or that SBC bought AT&T, even though the chart makes it look more like the opposite happened with the naming, the shear fact we went from one in 1984 to like two dozen in the mid nineties, and are now back down to only three speaks for itself.

It can also be argued the chart is worthless as an visual aid here because it's about POTS telephone lines moreso than wireless and doesn't even include VoiceStream -> T-Mobile or any of the other minor wireless carriers that exist today.
 
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I support the merger. Here's why.
1) t-mo is dying. Merger or no, t-mo in the US is not long for this world. They're not competitive.
2) t-mo isn't keeping prices down. They're a lower cost option, but vzn and AT&T already only compete against each other on price. Check the history - it's when one of them moves on price/features that the other one does. Not when t-mo (or sprint, for that matter) moves.
3) the telecom industry is something of a natural monopoly. Not that we should have a true monopoly, but the fact is that it doesn't make sense to have four companies trying to blanket the US with towers. It's tremendously inefficient.
4) there will still be low cost competition in the form of sprint and increasingly competitive regional carriers.
5) selfishly, as an AT&T customer, I want the network upgrades this will bring.
 
re original article

i'm not buying what this verizon guy says

its money driven - att and verizon support monopolies to profit and give us consumers less options

we need more competition - to drive prices down
 
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nylonsteel said:
we need more competition - to drive prices down

"More competion" is a nice rallying cry, but t mobile is not going to survive regardless. They are bleeding profits and customers at an alarming rate.
 

4) there will still be low cost competition in the form of sprint and increasingly competitive regional carriers.

And what makes you think the increasingly competitive regional carriers use in order to give you competitive pricing? They lease bandwidth from one of the national networks. Do you honestly believe AT&T and Verizon will keep their prices? Those guys will get screwed up badly!
 
Of course

Of course Verizon is in favor of it. Nowadays, big companies think a company can't be a "monopoly" if there are two companies. e.g. one PCS company, one GSM company. :rolleyes:

Imagine if we actually had a level playing field and actual competition.
 
yeah its in his best interest if AT&T and T-Mobile would merge, why? fewer competitors, wasier to convince FCC in their favors when they have 2 voices against instead of 3... all those wireless providers are just thieves and they anly care about big profits :( No competition is something that they will always favor...
 
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