Report: FCC official doubts AT&T + T-Mobile deal will sail through

It is sad to see government get involved in a transaction between two private companies. It is even more sad to see that people aren't outraged that the FCC even has a say in the matter.

The simple fact is that a true monopoly can't survive in the free market (and if it does it deserves to). The only way a true monopoly survives is when government interferes via legislation (due to lobbying power) to give them an advantage.

"there's no way the chairman's office rubber-stamps"

This is news because they usually always say, "yeah, the chairman will rubber stamp it"??

The reason they're saying this will take "a year" is because by that point ALL of the major US carriers will have deployed their "LTE" networks. Once this happens the excuse that AT&T will stifle GSM innovation.

This deal is good for AT&T and bad for consumers. AT&T gobbling up T-Mobile USA and their customer base is going to leave Sprint as the single national carrier that distinguishes itself through lower prices, in which case would leave Sprint less incentive to keep their prices low with no competition from T-Mobile in the race to the bottom. Strangely, Sprint and Verizon may both benefit from this merger as I've been hearing a lot of T-Mobile customers say they want nothing to do with AT&T. I also don't necessarily buy this as significant to AT&T improving its network. They may be getting a bunch of towers in the acquisition but they're also getting the T-Mobile customers that have been using them. What may happen in densely populated areas instead is that the T-Mobile customers that get moved over start feeling the effects of AT&T's overload.

You won't get any of that. Did Comcast give their customers anything when they bought NBC? Nope!

This has to do with money and influence, two things that at&t has plenty of. The deal will go through, but the FCC will have a dog & pony show for the public so we think they actually did something.

The deal will most likely go through as it's clear that being 3rd in the US telco race is not much of a story BUT this is the time to tell the FCC what conditions we want going forward that AT&T will capitulate to as part of the deal:

1) They must offer an unlimited data-web plan (some price cap for 5 years) that is really UNLIMITED. This will force Verizon to match it in some close manner.

2) All phones must be sold unlocked. Of course, it won't matter much as where are you really going to go but it does make using it internationally easier ...

What else?

As long as both carriers start using the same towers so I can get better coverage and less radiation going through my body, the happier I am.

Also, T-Mobile customers are usually cheap and whiny so with any hope, they'll complain enough so that AT&T will lower their damn prices.