This is how the Democrats get it wrong, ruling by theory instead of practicality.
Sprint is going to continue to fade. What happens when it goes bankrupt, then is its spectrum auctioned off and ends up with AT&T or Verizon anyway?
This is like Warner/EMI... The European Union and Impala were so worried about this concentration in the music business. Then EMI goes bust and most of its assets end up with Universal and the Vivendi company ends up with half the overall market share. This is just? This is progress?
In theory, concentration is bad, it offers fewer options to the public, it augurs against price drops. But you can't deal with mergers with a knee-jerk approach.
Antitrust law has taken a backseat. It should be applied more frequently. But the wankers in the White House and their minions ended up letting Facebook buy WhatsApp and Instagram, creating a singular monopoly in social media, but a reduction of four carriers to three in wireless communication is too much?
And you hear all about the digital divide. People who can't afford computers and high-speed internet, those who live in rural areas outside of range, but the agitators are willing to let there be two tiers of wireless service, based on how much you can pay?
Sprint is a joke, its only good feature is its cheap plans. And the plans can't go down to zero, with free iPhones, there must be some revenue, never mind profit. If the service was any good, people would be flocking to Sprint in droves.
As for T-Mobile... They've made something out of nothing. Outside the metropolis their LTE availability, availability of signal at all, is squat. Sure, T-Mobile gained market share by offering low prices, but without a robust 5G network, its customers would end up living in a tube-based village in a flat screen world.
When something becomes a commodity, there will be concentration. Hell, Samsung makes flat screens for Sony! Because the margins are so bad.
But don't expect Verizon to sell access to its industry leading network to its competitors. The network is its marketing advantage. As for AT&T, sure, it's improving, but if the company didn't have a legacy name, it too would be in the crapper.
Sprint owns valuable bandwidth. It's just that it lacks the cash to build it out. And to be a real competitor in 5G, T-Mobile needs that bandwidth. Not all mergers are bad.
Sure, price competition could wane, to customers' detriment, but how is propping up a fourth-rate service rejected by consumers an advantage?
I won't switch from Verizon. Unless it was literally proven there was a better service.
Meanwhile, everybody complains that there are few options for high-speed service in the home. One cable provider and you're lucky if Verizon FIOS is available in your neighborhood. Don't even talk to me about DSL, it's the Sprint of home service. But with 5G, there will be competition in the home, and isn't it better to have more options than fewer?
People will tolerate bad connections out in the wild, believing it's the nature of wireless communication, but they've never been overseas, where you get a connection everywhere! The truth is American networks are just not that good. But if you don't get good service in your home, where you're watching TV, you complain ad infinitum. So, a crappy 5G system is a nonstarter.
This left wing position bugs me. It's the same one that says we need to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. Sure, if you want to pay $3,000 for a flat screen. Or you're Apple, trying to build the Mac Pro in Texas where they can't get enough quality screws.
These people put out of work should be trained for new jobs, or else the U.S. becomes a second-class economy. Our strengths are intellectual property, tech. But then we have an Administration so afraid of immigrants that it refuses visas for those working in Silicon Valley, forcing them back to their countries where they create startups and competition.
That's right, there's ignorance on both sides of the aisle.
As for those on T-Mobile presently, happy with their service, wait until they actually get improved service, of the standard of Verizon or AT&T, they will be wowed.
You don't know what you're missing until you experience something better.
But in this brand-oriented world, everybody is convinced that what they own is the best, and marketing is all about subterfuge, you can't figure out what's best from the ads.
So this is a merger which must go through, even though John Legere's team stayed in Trump's hotel. Fine them, but don't blow them out of the water.
Meanwhile, this is how business works. It's built on favors and illicit activities. Sure, police it. But don't live with your eyes closed, disinterested in digging deeper to find out the truth, how the world works, even if elements are abhorrent to you.
You can't run the world on emotion, you've got to run it on truth. Just because your heart says one thing, that does not make it true.
In theory mergers, concentration, are bad. People lose jobs. Sometimes prices go up. But if the factory closes its doors completely, that's even worse. As for going against economics, Trump keeps saying the jobs are coming back but the truth is these companies have shareholders and must make a profit, so Carrier exports jobs and Harley-Davidson builds overseas and...
You may want it, but that does not mean you can have it.
And if you put up too many artificial walls, you destroy the marketplace.
Unfortunately, this is a merger that must be approved.
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