Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Gotta Cell "Phone"?
T-Mobile hired a cute actress and has produced a bunch of cute commercials, most of which are making fun of AT&T. Enter deal-making in the telecommunications industry. T-Mobile's parent company has agreed to sell T-Mobile to AT&T for the modest sum of 39 billion dollars($39,000,000,000). This would make America's telecommunications industry basically a two-player complex, namely AT&T and Verizon. And there is the fly in the ointment, for the deal has to be approved by the Justice Department. (Is anyone out there old enough to remember the old AT&T, aka "Ma Bell"?) Will it fly? It will be fun to watch. If the deal falls through, AT&T must still pay three billion dollars to the holder of T-Mobile.
Now I observe that the commercials are still running.
Will there be an expanded AT&T with T-Mobile's infrastructure and spectra?
Will AT&T get the T-Mobile girl in the deal?
Will there be, alternatively, a T-Mobile ipo?
Who, ultimately will get the plum in this pudding? (If you are betting the consumer, I suspect you have a very limited view of the way the world works.)
Tra la.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
We just dropped AT & T for TMobile, so I am not happy with this news. I'm thinking (and hearing) that we are gonna be the ones who get skunked in this deal. :(
Soon, the providers probably will not let us have a phone unless we subscribe to the internet plan. All of the TMobile users I know have that. Where is Sprint in all of this?
Lin, I suspect that you have a well-developed sense of how the world works.
Vee, I suspect that more fees for more required "features" is in the offing. Sprint may be irrelevant; or just maybe they could offer phone service at a reasonable price!
The whole thing continues to crack me up. It never works to have a bunch of small communications companies because people want seamless communication... in the long run, probably more than the low prices that competition brings. So we keep ending up with just a few major players.
Shark, I think it is all much more deliciously funny for those of us who can remember AT&T and the Bells. The more things change... ?
Post a Comment