AT&T to Buy T-Mobile
Ed Morrissey on the announcement that AT&T plans to buy T-Mobile:
I’ve had poor experiences with AT&T over two decades in an industry heavily reliant on telecoms, both in billing and service.
Amen. When it comes to my experiences and those of people I know, the behavior of AT&T as corporate bully knows no bounds. Nearly every billing experience I have heard about comes down to: we are a big company; we don’t care about the facts; submit to this jaw-droppingly unfair resolution of the situation or see your credit ruined.
I’ve heard of them literally acting as bandits, assessing charges for services never requested or rendered. Our experience consisted largely of their making errors in their favor every single billing cycle and forcing us into a one-hour call every month to get that $5 or $10 taken off. Which they would cheerfully do. I have long suspected this is a corporate scheme — fraud on an overwhelming scale — stemming from a conscious decision to slightly overcharge each customer each month and reverse any such overcharge only when a customer has navigated a complex system of menus and holding times.
After one such bizarre situation I swore off AT&T “forever” and went with . . . Cingular. Imagine my joy upon hearing of the AT&T/Cingular merger, when I learned I was once again an involuntary AT&T customer.
So I know how a lot of T-Mobile customers feel today.
January 8, 1982: Bell agrees to form the Baby Bells.
March 21, 2011: The reconstitution of the behemoth is complete.
I love how the unregulated free-market system gives the consumer so many choices.
JEA (4aceac) — 3/22/2011 @ 6:41 amI have always thought, if billing errors are really errors and random, that half would be in my favor and half in theirs. Seldom do I ever find an error in my favor.
Huey (ddf1a4) — 3/22/2011 @ 6:53 amYeah, but look on the bright side: at least we’ll have two companies controlling 75% of the wireless market if those damn dirty government regulators keep their damn dirty noses out of the private sector.
Leviticus (b987b0) — 3/22/2011 @ 7:04 ammmm, and i assume you wrote this post on your AT&T Iphone?
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 3/22/2011 @ 7:05 amI’ve always had good service from AT&T. That said, big business acquisitions are often bad for the acquirer, and less competition can’t be good for the consumer. You hardly hear about anti-trust actions anymore.
gp (72be5d) — 3/22/2011 @ 7:13 amI’ve been debating what carrier to use when I upgrade from my T-Mobile plain old wireless to a smartphone.
I guess T-Mobile / ATT just told me to go look for another carrier. I’m just annoyed that they will now monopolize GSM service in the US.
SPQR (26be8b) — 3/22/2011 @ 7:17 amSorry, but my experience has been exactly the opposite of yours. I switched to AT&T 4 years ago to get an iPhone and was glad to pay the penalties to get out of my Verizon family contract. I found Verizon’s phone service to be mediocre at best, and their customer service pretty much the same.
robertl (f084ae) — 3/22/2011 @ 7:29 amMy iPhone phone service has been marginally better than Verizon (certainly far from perfect), but the AT&T customer service people are exemplary. Every service and billing problem is handled personally and cordially and correctly. I would never think of changing carriers at this point.
So you are saying you also had service and billing problems with ATT, but after you navigate their customer service menus, they fix the problem for you?
How is that exemplary?
Anyway, like you, I have had poor phone service, and that’s the reason I’m tired of ATT. I’ve never had a billing error with them.
Dustin (c16eca) — 3/22/2011 @ 7:41 amMy experience is that ATT and Comcast both suck. I have no choice with Comcast TV as my HOA has a contract with them. Used to have ATT phone service and had some billing woes and was disgruntled because they would send ads for their services which then turned out to be unavailable at the quoted rate in my area.
I was thinking of T-Mobile for cell carrier but now will just pass on that idea. Was close to getting a smart phone contract through Sprint but read loads of negative stuff about them also and no straight answers about how much those added fees are. So for now I remain with prepaid Straight Talk where my unlimited is about $49 with all taxes and fees. Around here the actual airtime is through Verizon. Consumers Reports rates Verizon very highly but I’ve had nothing but problems with dropped connections and poor reception.
Calypso Louie Farrakhan (e2d7e5) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:12 amHave a long memory over the decades and will never buy squat from ATT. VW lost me forever with two new cars that were lemons. I will also boycott outfits such as U-Haul and Sears. We as consumers also must suffer because what amounts to no competition with public utilities and regulatory overseers in the pockets of those they regulate. There is supposedly no core inflation but sure seems my insurance bills keep climbing, Comcast increased everything by $2 a month, the wayer bill is indexed to some kind of index that DOES go up. Food and gasoline are not on the CPI because they are prone to “flucuation”? And some government bozo tells us that the new IPads are much more for a lowered price and thus our costs are down? Property taxes continue to rise, services are cut, anything paperwork with state government has risen sharply, like car registrations, etc. The local lib propaganda rag out of West Palm is now $1 daily/$2 Sunday.
My local gas station is $4 for hi-test and apparently that is still far too low for Obama. I should buy a Chevy Volt and help out the UAW owners while overpaying, getting crap and rather pitiful gas mileage to boot?
I blame nuclear power.
/Sarc
DohBiden (984d23) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:13 amI do not remember which company i was dealing with as it was many years ago and the charge was only 50 cents but i complained because it was obvious that a computer could be programmed add little charges that would usually go unnoticed or unchallenged and with millions of accounts it could easily amount to millions low cost revenue.They refused to remove the charge and i gave up.
dunce (b89258) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:14 amAT&T is just now starting to realize that there’s revenue beyond telemarketing and you know what? This is a good thing.
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:22 amWhat makes you think that T-Mobile can remain independent? The name of the game in 4G is penetration and coverage and it just gets worse as you go faster since cells. The small guy starts at a disadvantage and grows no faster than the big guy.
Maybe Sprint would have been a better match, giving 3 companies about the same size, but Sprint wasn’t in the bidding apparently.
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:34 amAT&T is no better or worse than any large American company which the feds, through uneven and often punitive regulation have been dicking around with for decades. And, they were one of the first corporations brave enough to raise concerns publicly about Obamacare and its effects on their employees and enormous roster of retirees.
I think where one lives often very much determines personal perception on how the cell companies provide service. I’ve had surprisingly good experience with both Verizon and AT&T.
elissa (bd4926) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:36 amOddly, my only AT&T service today is wireless. I have a landline, but it’s VoIP, and my internet is cable cause it is far faster than AT&T DSL.
I really haven’t had an issue in Los Angeles with AT&T cell coverage — anywhere I have no coverage, Verizon (and usually Sprint) has no coverage either. These are usually deep in residential zones where cancer rays are banned. YMMV.
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:38 amAT&T pulls bowling balls through IV tubing tied up in knots and heat sealed at both ends.
i was with Cingular for years, and used to routinely call friends in Canada… then AT&T took over and it became an “overseas” call, even though they couldn’t tell me which “sea” i was calling over.
i’m with Verizon now, with a stable price and no service problems here in the big city. my only gripe is that they keep calling me to get a new phone, which means a new contract.
it ain’t broke kids, and i’m not going to fix it.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:38 amAnother perspective to consider — due to VOIP and free functionality like Google Voice it is possible to end run around a lot of the big telco vendors.
For example: from your laptop, you can synchronize a standard bluetooth earpiece; and then use Google Voice(if you have a Gmail account you have free access to this) to make crystal clear outgoing calls. Thus avoiding chewing up cell phone minutes. This is a massive advantage for people who work from home, or from hotel rooms, or from their cars near a wireless public hotspot.
For a bit more sophistication, you can go full VOIP over your Internet connection and be able to also receive calls etc. If done via your computer this can be free or low cost also.
Finally you can use a regular handset but go VOIP — here you do pay a telco for the privilege but you don’t pay any “per minute” costs, just a flat fee.
SunSword (9afd06) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:43 amThe history of regulation here isn’t good:
Worldcom bets the farm on a merger with Sprint. Disallowed, Worldcom folds.
DirecTV tries to merge with Dish. Disallowed, Murdoch buys and nearly ruins DirecTV, dumping TiVo for his own DVRs. Dish limps on, fighting TiVo’s patent suits against its DVRs.
XM/Sirius merger delayed for over a year and both companies almost fold. At the last moment the merger is allowed and the combined company is just now coming out of the abyss, with a stock that is now actually worth over a dollar. Lots of debt, though.
Bigger is not always badder. Sometimes the marketplace demands scale. The cell business seems to be one of those. If anything, there is too much regulation, not too little.
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:44 am= I have a landline, but it’s VoIP==
Not positive, but it’s pretty likely that your landline carrier is just reselling and rebilling AT@T service. Not very many places in the country have landline service out of central offices that were not built and part of the original Bell/AT&T network.
elissa (bd4926) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:47 ami forgot to mention that we also had AT&T DSL here at the ranch… which they took over from the previous provider.
connection times went to hell, and no number of tech service calls could fix the issue. near as we could tell, they reduced the number of servers and would simply reach max capacity.
they denied that they had made any changes, but offered to let us switch to the higher priced wireless service if we wanted.
we switched to another company instead, amusingly enough, a reseller of AT&T, which gives us friendly and reliable service at a lower price. 8)
so yeah, AT&T could pull an M-1 out of a mud hole with one inhalation if it were in to the turret ring.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:47 am“Bigger is not always badder. Sometimes the marketplace demands scale. The cell business seems to be one of those. If anything, there is too much regulation, not too little.”
– Kevin M
Wow…
I can safely say that if there’s one market I don’t want controlled by trusts, it’s the telecommunications market. Coke + Pepsi is one thing, cuz I can stop drinking pop – but I don’t want one or two companies controlling communication, because I don’t intend on foregoing communication anytime soon.
Healthcare is another thing I’d rather not be monopolized.
Leviticus (d56bc4) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:57 am75% market share?! Come on… why isn’t this bothering you guys more?
Leviticus (d56bc4) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:59 amI’m with you, Leviticus. Verizon and ATT’s pricing and policies are already in lock step. There is no practical choice there for most consumers.
I also wanted to add that I too have been using Google Voice for the majority of my phone calls. It’s google, so there’s the issue of privacy, and they are also a huge untrustworthy company, etc etc, but it’s really an amazing product.
Google voice calls my ATT cell phone if I’m not at my computer. It takes voice mails that I can listen to, but also emails me a text transcript which is much easier to process than voice mail. I can just click on names in my phone book to make calls at my computer.
I can even record calls (Which is very convenient if someone is relaying a lot of information by voice) simply by hitting 4 on the dial pad.
All I really need if a mobile hot spot and a portable system that can use that hotspot to use Google Voice. Cell phones are not the future.
Dustin (c16eca) — 3/22/2011 @ 9:16 amIt bothers us a great deal, Leviticus, and not just from the aspect that two companies will control the vast majority of the market and what it mean for pricing.
T-Mobile was the first company to roll out an android phone, and have been rather innovative. They had to be as a small company in order to survive. Now, there will be less incentive to innovate. We will be left with few phone options and I suspect that we would see a slowing of new products or services.
What’s worse is that Verizon would also certainly end up trying to buy Sprint, making it so that 100% of the market would be controlled by 2 companies. I can’t see the Fed allowing that purchase, which would raise a legal issue as to whether it could allow THIS purchase (“If you’ll let it go down to three companies, why not two?”). The only way I could see that working is if there was new regulation allowing for smaller companies to lease/buy capacity off the big guys (like Boost Mobile and other pay-as-you-go services).
Me, I’ll just stick with Verizon. In August I get a new phone, and I’m considering an iPhone 4.
I’m also torn between a Xoom (which has a suite that runs Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and an iPad (bigger screen, better battery, apps galore).
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/22/2011 @ 9:47 amSprint has superior service to both.
JD (3a6b36) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:26 amfyi, here’s popular mechanics on the merger.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/7-implications-of-an-at-t-and-t-mobile-merger?click=pm_latest
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:37 amwe should take away NPR’s spectrum and sell it for to make the competition more competitiony
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:39 amI wonder if anyone has thought about the fact that AT&T and T-Mobile use different frequencies for 3g connections? AT&T uses 850 MHz and 1900 MHz while T-Mobile uses 1700 MHz. If AT&T takes over and switches everyone to 850/1900 MHz that means that the current T-Mobile phones will not work on the AT&T 3g network.
Tanny O'Haley (12193c) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:46 amI used to work for AT&T Wireless customer service, including during the merger with Cingular. You’re not far off.
One of my (least) favourite things that happened a lot, was the customer would be sold a $4.99/month phone insurance product. Our instructions were that it could only be sold on regular cell phones of medium-to-low value as the terms of this offer stated it was invalid when applied to a high-end cell phone or a smart phone. We kept lists of each, of course.
Nonetheless, the software allowed it to be sold on everything and what would often happen is a customer would call in because their smart phone was damaged … and I would have the pleasure of telling them, sorry, you’re not covered despite you paying the premiums. But, hey, I’ll refund the premiums.
All those customers who didn’t break or lose their smart phones? Yeah, they just paid the premiums. For nothing.
It wasn’t always like that. I mean, it’s a real company delivering real value, but … no one seemed to really care that I found the above situation, for example, wrong; it’s just how it was.
Christoph (8ec277) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:47 amCan you hear me now? Good.
DohBiden (984d23) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:51 amWhy would AT&T want to lose that spectrum? Why not just provide service to everybody in 850/1700/1900 MHz, since they are buying the bandwidth license as part of the merger?
That said … when I worked for Cingular during the merger (was originally on the AT&T side) we forced a lot of people to migrate, seemingly so they could be on the Cingular billing systems (and then after I left, apparently the became AT&T again: weird). So, yep, I could see forced migrations taking place, but alternatively, I’m sure they could support all 3 spectrums if they wanted to.
Christoph (8ec277) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:51 amMost likely wrong. Vonage over cable. No connection whatsoever at the MPOE.
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:54 amT-Mobile has no ability to roll out $G. It calls a slightly amped 3G “4G” but that’s just marketing. It doesn’t approach the speeds of LTE or WiMax, something that will be apparent in a year or so as their service is maxed out.
T-Mobile hasn’t been spending any money on new bandwidth, which is the main reason their prices are lower. Fine as far as it does, and it’s going to stop working shortly. For them, it is merge or die.
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:58 amUm, that’s 4G, but $G isn’t far off.
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:58 amMain problems with big corporations merging: internal communication, and data sharing. I had some hell when Cingular got gobbled up because AT&T wasn’t ready to deal with Cingular’s customers.
AT&T is all about the money, and that is understandable and acceptable; and with this merger, there’s no where else to go – which is also understandable but unacceptable.
DaveO (391b76) — 3/22/2011 @ 11:01 amI wonder if anyone has thought about the fact that AT&T and T-Mobile use different frequencies for 3g connections? AT&T uses 850 MHz and 1900 MHz while T-Mobile uses 1700 MHz. If AT&T takes over and switches everyone to 850/1900 MHz that means that the current T-Mobile phones will not work on the AT&T 3g network.
True. But who keeps a phone for years and years anyway? AT&T has said that they intend to use the T-Mobile towers for LTE (4G) and migrate all T-mobile 3G users to the AT&T phones over a multi-year period. Why is this bad? Or are you still holding on to your StarTac?
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 11:02 amKevin – Before my current phone, I have one of the original model EnV’s (the clamshell frame with a full QWERTY keyboard was the key), and I used it up until I got my current Omnia (the original model) back in 2009.
Hell, my sister’s had the same phone for over 4 years at this point, and my dad doesn’t change phones for years.
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/22/2011 @ 11:12 amAlso, to be frank, I find Verizon’s service to be excellent. Even in a tech/signal heavy convention like PAX in Seattle I had signal and connectivity, with any slowness easily being attributed to my old-ass phone.
I even could post to twitter and make/recieve calls while on the main show floor, and there was enough EM flux to make laptop wifi spotty (there were enough monitors and computers and lights and power cords for a medium-sized tech company).
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/22/2011 @ 11:19 amThe hold times and incessant lying or “playing dumb” Verizon does is unbelievable as well. It’s worth it to give them the $100 they ask for, for services that were never ordered or delivered.
Wesson (dc314c) — 3/22/2011 @ 11:22 amI have had no trouble with AT&T for years. Their international service is so good I’ve had friends twice call me at 3 AM in Paris, not knowing I was out of the country.
Verizon I’ve had since I moved to the mountains last summer. It has been nothing but trouble. First, the AT&T iPhone has better coverage up here than Verizon, contrary to what I was told. That means I have a two year contract with a year to run for a cell phone I don’t use.
Then, they have trouble with sending me the bill, possibly because I have a PO Box. Mail sent to the street address is returned by the Post Office.
Then they suggested I combine my wireless and land line bill. That was a mistake. They screwed up the mailing again and now, I couldn’t get anyone online because they wanted my account number and I didn’t know it.
I finally got that straightened out.
Then, I cancelled the landline because the DSL was agonizingly slow and I use that for business. They were nice about it but the bills stopped coming and the account number changed again.
Last week, I got two bills saying my service would be cut off. I sent off a random payment since I didn’t know how much I owed. I finally reached someone who told me that the payment had not been credited(I think it went to the old account number) but he would correct the address. He suggested that the bills were going astray because they had POBOX674 as my address. He said that had happened to him.
He also suggested that, since I wasn’t using it, I go to a cheaper plan on the cell phone.
AT&T is no worse than Verizon. T-Mobile is/was a division of Deutche Telecom and was not the best service. I had one of their cell phones a few years ago. I got it specifically for international service. Then, I tried to use it in London and it didn’t work. No one at T Mobile knew how to fix it.
I suspect DT sold it to AT&T to get rid of it.
It’s all random. Pure luck if these things work as they are supposed to.
Mike K (8f3f19) — 3/22/2011 @ 11:29 amI forgot that CDMA phones don’t do that annoying RF squabble sound that my GSM phones have done for almost ten years.
I’m tempted to go with Virgin Mobile’s $40 a month plan with unlimited sms and internet, but merely 1200 minutes of talk.
Any detractors to this plan?
Dustin (c16eca) — 3/22/2011 @ 11:31 amNot all corporate America is bad …
[Apple’s] focus this week has been to troubleshoot all the iPad 2s that customers are returning to the stores. One iPad came back with a post it note on it that said “Wife said no.” It was escalated as something funny, and two of the VPs got wind of it. They sent the guy an iPad 2 with a note on it that said “Apple said yes.”
Winning !!
Rodan (03e5c2) — 3/22/2011 @ 12:45 pmI had an AT&T billing issue back in the 90’s with my first cell phone. It was such a bitter experience I said never again. Went with Sprint and have never looked back. They have warts but I have never had a billing issue go unresolved and descend into threats. I have Verizon FIOS for internet and although I have had stupid (on their part) billing issues, they have all been resolved fairly quickly and painlessly. (Verizon billing issue: I have them bill my credit card each month for the service. It seems every couple of years they do some switchover on computers and ‘forget’ to bill on time. They bill late, which results in a late charge. Which I call to get removed. Wait a year or two. Repeat. Idiots.) But AT&T? Never, ever, again.
JoeC (a8ccf1) — 3/22/2011 @ 1:35 pmViolent torpedo of mergers or something.
DohBiden (984d23) — 3/22/2011 @ 1:48 pmControlling 75% of a comparatively open market doesn’t mean jack, idiot.
Sprint is a large chunk of the remaining 25%, and, for the first time in a long while, they’re getting substantially good marks. Which has Verizon customers considering the switch to Sprint (including me). If Verizon doesn’t jump through hoops to keep me, I’m gone.
Unlike the old days, when your phone service HAD to be provided by one company, you can change your service anytime your current contract runs out. So saying that two companies have 75% of the market doesn’t mean squat to anyone involved.
IgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society (c9dcd8) — 3/22/2011 @ 1:56 pmNowhere else to go? WtF planet are YOU on, jack?
Verizon is the obvious choice, Sprint is also a clear alternative.
This commentary is also crap:
IgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society (c9dcd8) — 3/22/2011 @ 2:02 pmSprint is going to be the first to the market with 4G speeds by some months, and their data costs are lower than either Verizon or AT&T, which is a form of competitiveness in itself.
How the f*ck is telecommunications an “open market”? Oh, excuse me while I go slap up a nationwide cell-tower infrastructure so that I can grab 0 percent market share before being bankrupted by my overhead. Take that, AT&T! Capitalism at its best.
Controlling 75% of a market always means something – for starters, that the one or two other providers in that market can’t compete without merging themselves. So now you have two providers. Choice!
Leviticus (b987b0) — 3/22/2011 @ 2:08 pmWas already a AT&T customer when they merged with BellSouth. We got screwed in the billing change ever during the merger. I feel for the T-Mobile folks.
tbflowers (11c057) — 3/22/2011 @ 2:32 pmYes i blame nuclear power on this
/Sarc
DohBiden (984d23) — 3/22/2011 @ 3:04 pmLeviticus – you should just have the government make AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint let everyone else use their infrastructure, that way it would be open. What a silly position for you to take. It is expensive and hard, therefor it is not competitive? It is also very expensive to start a car dealership, a new hotel chain, or a new nationwide chain of retailers.
JÐ (d48c3b) — 3/22/2011 @ 3:16 pmTo repeat:
T-Mobile hasn’t been spending any money on new bandwidth, which is the main reason their prices are lower. Fine as far as it goes, but it’s going to stop working shortly. For them, it is merge or die.
The really have nothing to offer but customers and towers. Their technology is dead end.
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 3:24 pmWe could also have a more open infrastructure if the government forced cities to allow cell antennas on every telephone pole or street lamp. Good luck with that.
Kevin M (73dcc9) — 3/22/2011 @ 3:26 pmCertain sorts of industries are prone to natural monopolies, JD, and thereby beg government regulation. A hotel or a retail store can function without being a national entity. Insofar as the main selling point of a telecommunications company is consistent, nationwide coverage, forgive me for doubting the applicability of your analogy.
Leviticus (cf8ec3) — 3/22/2011 @ 3:34 pmPharma company. Biotech. Computer company. Touchscreen tablet manufacturer. Insert about 963215368 other industries and companies that would be incredibly expensive to get started in. Sure, cost can be a barrier to entry, but that does not, in and of itself, mean there is no competition. Sorry you felt the need to overstate your position, but there is all sorts of competition, many of it described above, Boost, Virgin, VOIP, video, ad nauseum. Plus, Sprint consistently beats them to market with things like 4G, Evo, mifi, etc …
JÐ (0d2ffc) — 3/22/2011 @ 4:36 pmMy landline is AT&T–used to be Southern Bell. No real billing problems, outside of a payment that went missing for two months, which I caught just before the due date, paid over the phone with a credit card, and eventually the missing check was posted by AT&T to my account, so it evened out. No late fees or other charges that shouldn’t be there. However, I didn’t realize until after the fact that they inflated the charges to call 411 tremendously sometime in the last eighteen months. So now I use 411.com instead.
kishnevi (4fe729) — 3/22/2011 @ 4:37 pmI had one major problem with the land line a few months ago, due mostly to the fact that the wiring in the house is about thirty years old. Since we have the inside maintainance plan with them, the repair cost me nothing, and was done in a sort of timely manner–sort of timely being due mostly to weekend and my work schedule.
Got a cell phone after that–prepay every month, use it only to call some family members and keep up with doctors and Walgreens–very basic stuff, so far no problems with billing, service, etc. However, the carrier is–ta da–T-mobile.
My cable is with Comcast, via our condo association (similar situation to Calypso Louie). Service is just bad enough with them that I don’t want to use them for wireless/internet; and I’m not convinced enough about AT&T DSL to use them either, and since those two are apparently the only choices for broadband in this area, I’m sticking to really old fashioned dial-up for now. I suppose eventually I’ll go wireless, but I don’t have any pressing need for it, beyond downloading music files I have no need to download. (I’m not a movie viewing person.)
AT&T has introduced their U-verse service in our area for both cable, wireless, and broadband, but is pushing it as a cable service in competition with Comcast, DirectTV, etc. Have no need for that.
So while I’m not dreading the changeover, I’m not enthusiastic. I can, effectively, drop T-mobile whenever I want. Hopefully, when and if I need to change my cell phone carrier, Spring/Verizon/whomever will be around to offer a decent alternative.
Colonel suggest cure
for what ails patterico
ColonBlow® and milk
ColonBlow® breakfast cereal contains 235% more fiber than the leading brand!
ColonelHaiku (4e36de) — 3/22/2011 @ 5:01 pmAT&T will be the provider with the largest LTE (4G) network in the nation.
ColonelHaiku (4e36de) — 3/22/2011 @ 5:04 pmWe could also have a more open infrastructure if the government forced cities to allow cell antennas on every telephone pole or street lamp. Good luck with that.
That is a challenge, but look what has been done in downtown Chicago. Soon you will see technology deployed that brings all of that cell antenna technology down to the size of Rubik’s Cube®
ColonelHaiku (4e36de) — 3/22/2011 @ 5:07 pmLet me tell you about the traffic ticket I got in LA. Judge told me I had to pay it or face a short jail sentence. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I had no where to turn, no alternate provider of justice.
ColonelHaiku (4e36de) — 3/22/2011 @ 5:15 pmI think FARK won the internets with the headline: AT&T and T-Mobile are getting married. There will be no reception following.
sybilll (a0d060) — 3/22/2011 @ 6:31 pmThe first post by JEA explains the whole problem. Today’s AT&T is Southwestern Bell, reconstituted and still subject to government regulations that prevent innovation except inthe case of screwing customers.
Ma Bell was broken up to stop a government monopoly on a public utility.
Now, we can grouse about the results and be affronted by the outcome. We can complain about the service and expense of our telephony providers.
However, I am posting this from an iPhone on the ATT network through a home wifi.
Deregulation allowed new technology to be developed, used and adapted.
I can complain about how a service provider supplies it’s service, but I am no longer constrained by a leased phone constrained by a physical line that can only be changed by a monopoly employee.
However, I also have to say that everything we complain about today’s phone service can still be laid at the feet of government regulation rather than the companies. The companies will always find a way to make regulation work for profit. That is their job.
Once again, the problem isn’t with enterprise, it is with the incessant pull of bureaucracy to restrain enterprise.
Ag80 (efea1d) — 3/22/2011 @ 8:15 pmLet me be clear Obama inherited this merger from the bush administration.
DohBiden (984d23) — 3/22/2011 @ 9:11 pmThe potential federal antitrust problems with this deal really are non-trivial. And this could be a very attractive line in the sand to draw for the Obama DoJ, with good campaign demagog material.
Beldar (a197ec) — 3/22/2011 @ 10:57 pmOddly enough, I don’t have any problems with AT&T.
The Dana who uses Nextel®/Sprint (3e4784) — 3/23/2011 @ 4:57 amA lot of bloggers have ad widgets set up that pick keywords from the articles, and then install ads based on those keywords, right below the article. Just think: if you had that set up here, right below the post you’d be making money from an AT&T ad! 🙂
The Dana who notices these things (3e4784) — 3/23/2011 @ 5:02 amElizabeth Taylor dies at 79. She will be missed.
The Emperor (3e1a1b) — 3/23/2011 @ 5:48 amDana
1) i am very concerned you might have multiple personality disorder. one minute you are the one with nextel, the next you are the one who notices these things. each is apparently a fully separate personality… (j/k)
2) you should email that comment about ads to Patterico.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 3/23/2011 @ 6:13 amScott,
Before my current phone, I have one of the original model EnV’s (the clamshell frame with a full QWERTY keyboard was the key), and I used it up until I got my current Omnia (the original model) back in 2009.
I am bitterly clinging to my EnV Touch precisely because of the QWERTY keyboard. I do not like virtual keyboards. Is there any later model phone — available on Verizon — that matches that keyboard?
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0a09eb) — 3/23/2011 @ 6:56 amMr Worthing wrote:
And here I thought that multi-tasking my personality was a real talent. Now, chastened, I must seek a psychiatrist, hoping against hope that ObamaCare will pay for it.
The Dana who needs a head shrinker (3e4784) — 3/23/2011 @ 6:57 amI tend to think that AT&T’s doing this more for 4G network expansion than for 3G.
Hey! I liked my StarTAC! 😛
Darth Venomous (c8614a) — 3/23/2011 @ 7:06 amThe steel mill I was coaxed into joining had the problem JD outlined to Levitticus. They thought, just cause we can stamp parts they will come – I mentioned to them that this sales thingy gets in the way of getting to buy a billion dollars worth of machinery and thinking that all was well with only two sales staff, neither of which had any experience selling the parts I was banging out.
opps…
EricPWJohnson (8f7017) — 3/23/2011 @ 7:10 amIn other words, breaking into new markets is almost impossible, even if you have uber deep pockets
EricPWJohnson (8f7017) — 3/23/2011 @ 7:17 amDon’t forget MetroPCS and Cricket. They’re also reasonable alternatives to the big boys.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0a09eb) — 3/23/2011 @ 7:37 amPeople that are using this merger as a defense of regulation and an attack on the free market are just not getting it. What we are seeing is as far from free-market as you can get. We are witnessing the direct result of the unholy alliance between government and the Local Exchange Carriers (LECs). In the early days of telco it seemed to make sense to allow a monopoly so that you did not have poles and wire criss-crossing the sky. Those days are over and so too the need for a LEC monopoly. The conduits, poles, and other infrastructure have been paid for long, long ago and that is what should be divested. The days of copper are over and the present and future are for fiber and wireless. Face it, local phone companies and innovation go together like Michael Moore and a diet. The wireless companies were doing just fine until the wireline companies started to coalesce into the repugnant monster they once were. They knew that their copper was a dinosaur so they “acquired” their future by sucking up the only entrepreneurial and innovative segment of telecom. They are once again complete – fat, dumb, and happy.
Steven S. (e5c232) — 3/23/2011 @ 11:41 am“Today’s AT&T is Southwestern Bell, reconstituted and still subject to government regulations that prevent innovation except in the case of screwing customers.”
That’s one of the main downsides of the world-wide web: people who mislead, tell half-truths and pontificate with great self-confidence about that which they know so little of.
Today’s AT&T is Southwestern Bell/Pacific Bell/Nevada Bell/Ameritech/BellSouth/Southern New England Tellephone and a few others – along with what remained of the old AT&T long distance company – all combined into a corporation with a world-wide presence and market.
and BTW… whoever made the crack about Cingular Shazaaaam!!! all of a sudden being owned by AT&T would be surprised to learn that Cingular was a company jointly owned – for years – by Southwestern Bell Corp and BellSouth.
If you want more education, check out some of the old early ’90’s AT&T ads on YouTube and their predictions of all of the technological advances that have become centered on your portable, hand-held mini-computer, all of which have come to pass and all of which were brought to market by the successful corporation now known as AT&T.
GeneralMalaise (ead6f4) — 3/23/2011 @ 3:40 pmBrother Bradley, there are several option…
The Driod 2 has a slider to expose a full QWERTY board, as do several other Driod-based phones.
And there is always the option of a bluetooth keyboard. Amazon has several options (including one that folds and when unfolded will hold your phone in landscape mode).
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/23/2011 @ 4:00 pmScott, thanks for that. I have thought of the Bluetooth keyboard, which would be a great add-on. But nothing beats having a real keyboard on the phone, so I’ll check out the Droid phones you mentioned.
Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (bc3efd) — 3/23/2011 @ 5:30 pmI actually know a guy that has this one. Not a patterico-funding link, though, so do as you wish…
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/23/2011 @ 5:40 pmLarge corporations alway overbill with full knowledge that only 1-2% of those ripped off will stick in there until the charge is removed, meanwhile the corporation makes billions with their criminal acts.
Scrapiron (489af1) — 3/23/2011 @ 5:51 pmAT&T is not as smart as GeneralMalaise might think. They totally screwed up early on based on the famous McKinsey report in the 80s, predicting that there might be 1 million users by yr. 2000. As a result, AT&T missed out (thankfully) on directing the industry and had to buy back in by purchasing the developed McCaw (CellOne) network for I think 10 billion years later. Other companies had far more dramatic affects on the direction the industry would take – Motorola, Qualcomm, GTE, etc. AT&T reminded me of the 98 pound cowboy that grabs a Brahma bull by the horns, and as the cowboy is being flailed around – is heard yelling “I got Him!!!”.
Steven S. (e5c232) — 3/24/2011 @ 10:21 amThe AT&T you speak of is only a piece of the pie, steven s., as it was purchased by SBC just a few years ago. There wouldn’t be a Motorola if not for SBC… Qualcomm… small potatoes… GTE??? Legendary epic fail as a network provider and I can see you never lived in their territory and suffered with their “service”, as they were the national leaders in utility commission complaints.
In fact, there wouldn’t be an industry if there hadn’t been a Bell Labs. Do some research and then don’t go away mad… go away educated.
GeneralMalaise (67c3bb) — 3/24/2011 @ 6:11 pmActually General, I did live in GTE territory and I worked for them too. Started in SxS (step by step) switching and then was part of the team to bring GTE into digital with the GTD-5. That switch is still in play and was a JV between GTE and AT&T. Later in 84 I was one of the first 7 in the Pacific Region for GTE Mobilnet – the B-side. I was there when it was all developing in the markets. Got to work all over the US. We made things up as we went.
Steve (866f07) — 3/24/2011 @ 7:00 pmFollow Me Roaming was invented by my good buddy – at GTE. Back then we just PC’ed the hell out of everything to get what we wanted.There was a huge evolution and outside of PhD Lee from Bell Labs, I don’t remember a whole hell of lot that AT&T can claim. As for GTE – Rocky Johnson was probably one of the best and most visionary CEOs of the time. Chuck Lee sold that outfit down the river – it was too bad, because the “can do”” attitude has turned into a “what does the spreadsheet say” doctrine.
Also – why do you think Motorola owes its existence to SBC? Motorola had long been the standard for radio communications and in fact it was Motorola that developed the Dyna Tac – the first (huge though it was) portable phone. In fact the first cellular systems were either Motorola or Ericsson. AT&T later “modified” a glorified PBX and called it the AutoPlex. Still a piece of crap – not that the Motorola EMXs were whole lot better…
Steve (866f07) — 3/24/2011 @ 7:42 pmI think 3 years after the AT&T & T-Mobile merge the customer service with AT&T will stink and be an absolute nightmare to get through to to sort out a billing problem. Which is why I’m moving to a smaller prepaid company now that will have to deliver good service and low prices to stay competitive. I’m with Straight Talk’s prepaid plans and I don’t know why I didn’t change earlier as they have the cheapest unlimited everything plan for $45/month and they use the networks of Verizon and AT&T. The Straight talk plans are allot cheaper than contract plans and they have 2 smart phones, the Nokia E71 and Nokia 6790 each costing $200. I’m keeping my costs very low and I’ve got a moderately priced smart phone – I’ll recommend these Straight Talk plans to anybody and tell guys who are wanting to sign cell phone contracts in the next 2 years to exercise great caution.
Norma (05126a) — 3/26/2011 @ 6:45 pm84. Who really has the best deal overall? Hard to fathom for me, but I know I loathe ATT. Currently have StraightTalk Unlimited, which is $49 with taxes and they threw in a free month after twelve months of automatic deductions. My problem is abysmal reception at times in Boca Raton, Fl. Yes, Verizon provides the network and supposedly is overall so wonderful, according to Consumers Reports. Maybe it is the phone but the web access and speed just rots.
Calypso Louie Farrakhan (f84281) — 3/26/2011 @ 7:05 pmIt can depend on your location, Louie. Certain buildings have horrible signal sure to construction material, wiring, electronic components, etc. Also, if you’re between two towers, they can fight for which one handles the signal, causing service to be horrible (it keeps swapping back and forth).
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 3/26/2011 @ 7:15 pm