As you are no doubt aware, over in the good ole US of A, AT&T is trying to acquire T-Mobile USA for the substantial sum of $39 billion and if the merger of the two carriers goes ahead would give AT&T a subscriber base of some 125 million thus making AT&T larger than Verizon with their 93 million and Sprint’s 49 million.
However, all is not rosy in the US carrier garden when it comes to this proposed acquisition as according to an article over on Mashable, Sprint is opposed to the merger and is putting up quite a fight against it going ahead.
Before the merger can go ahead it has to be approved by the FCC, Department of Justice and apparently Congress, and apparently Sprint, opposed to the deal has said…
“If approved, the proposed acquisition would create a combined company that would be almost three times the size of Sprint in terms of wireless revenue and would entrench AT&T’s and Verizon’s duopoly control over the wireless market. The wireless industry moving forward would be dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically integrated companies with unprecedented control over the U.S. wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs, such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete. “
However, according to the Wall Street Journal, AT&T Senior VP Jim Cicconi hit back at Sprint’s statement with… “With regard to Sprint’s recent statements about our transaction, we have always found that the most constructive course is to focus on our own strategies for serving our customers and building our business, rather than becoming distracted by challenging the business strategies of others.”
Obviously there are big battles ahead over the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, battles that will no doubt not only pull in Sprint but maybe Verizon as well at some point. But what we would like to know is the customer’s views on this merger.
So what do our reader’s think about it all, is the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile a good idea or bad idea from a customer’s point of view, are you for or against the merger? Feel free to share your opinions to our comments area below.
