The United States Department of Justice has filed an antitrust complaint against the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. They state that the elimination of a low cost option for consumers will result in much higher prices and less competition among wireless carriers.
Regarding AT&T’s spectrum claims, the DOJ said that the gains would be negligible compared to the problems the decreased competiton would cause. They cite that AT&T could accomplish the same goals if it invested in its own network, rather than buying out T-Mobile.
I think the DOJ raises some great points here, and probably voiced the same opinion many people have been thinking for quite a while.
What are your thoughts?
Adam Lehman says
It frustrates me that the government can file a lawsuit against a company. Seems weird. They might have a valid point in that AT&T could invest into it’s own network, but AT&T could also invest into T-Mobile and buy their network (thus investing in their own network).
Maybe they should have filed a lawsuit against Apple’s purchase of LaLa.com….
Chase Livingston says
Yeah, but I also think eliminating the competition will be bad for the industry in general. I think this was done on behalf of consumers, which I tend to agree with.
Gene Pearson says
This is the most political DOJ in history and totally anti-business. We should keep the government out of it and let the market go on. T Mobile isn’t providing all that competition anyway.