Attached to this post is the antitrust complaint filed today by the U.S. Department of Justice against AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA, Inc., and Deutsche Telekom AG (T-Mobile’s parent).
Case No. 1:11-cv-01560, assigned to Hon. Ellen S. Huvelle
25 pages.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLIANT IN PDF FORMAT (about 1 MB)
In a copyrighted story that appeared in the 8/11/11 edition of Wireless Week, Maisey Ramsay wrote about an AT&T/T-Mobile merger document that appeared on the FCC’s web site, and then disappeared few hours later.
According to Maisey’s story, the interesting AT&T document showed that if the Commission approves the proposed T-Mobile merger, AT&T will expand its high speed data network to rural areas beyond that which they’ve already agreed to serve.
This is an interesting revelation given that the wireless carriers have claimed that its local governments that have stymied their growth through right-of-way regulations that they assert block deployment.
Yeah, right.
Of course we know that those carrier-claims are hollow, and that smaller communities go begging for modern celular/PCS/LTE/AWS services and high speed wireless internet
According to the article:
“AT&T senior management concluded that, unless AT&T could find a way to expand its LTE footprint on a significantly more cost-effective basis, an LTE deployment to 80 percent of the U.S. population was the most that could be justified,” AT&T counsel Richard Rosen stated in the letter.
The company said its merger with T-Mobile would spread the cost of the LTE expansion over a larger revenue base, allowing it to “better absorb the increased capital investment and lower returns associated with deploying LTE to over 97 percent of the U.S. population.”
Thanks, Richard… You’ve confirmed what we’ve known, and what the Commission needs to know.
It’s all about the money…the carriers’ money…
…and not about claims that it’s the local governments are blocking deployment. It’s the money, stupid!
-Jonathan
Attention TracFone, you now have more competition trying to knock you down from the top of the heap as the ‘burner phone‘ provider of choice…T-Mobile.
T-Mobile USA, Inc. and 7-Eleven, Inc. have jointly announced that you can now buy a prepaid T-Mobile burner phone (with no term contracts, thank you very much) 7-Eleven® stores.
What’s better is that T-Mobile’s prepaid plans and services that run on its nationwide 4G network. That means faster throughput for T-Mobile’s new burner customers including, ah, commercial activities such as independent pharmaceutical sales, and controlled detonations.
As early as 1994, 7-Eleven recognized its customers’ desire for affordable, no term contract airtime, began offering prepaid cards in 1994.
Starting just a few days ago (Aug. 1) 7-Eleven began offering its customers T-Mobile prepaid handset, the LG GS170 for a mere $29.99 (plus taxes and fees, of course)
According to T-Mobile…
the LG GS170 offers an intuitive user interface with one-touch speakerphone, large visible keys and a high-resolution color display. In addition, the LG GS170 features a VGA camera, MP3 ringtone capability, Bluetooth® 2.1, text and picture messaging capability, and email support packaged in a sleek, pocket-size design
“Industry projections indicate that prepaid service will continue its growth trajectory and is expected to comprise a significant portion of the wireless market within the next several years,” said Amy McCune, vice president of national retail for T-Mobile USA. “We believe 7-Eleven’s customers who seek accessibility and convenience will love this prepaid phone. They can expect to receive the high-quality customer service and access to a nationwide 4G network that T-Mobile users have come to expect.”
T-Mobile will offer a $50-per-month plan with unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited Web with no overage charges and the first 100 MB of data at up to 4G speeds, but why would true burner customers want to tie themselves down to such things.
Jesus Delgado-Jenkins, 7-Eleven’s senior vice president of merchandising, marketing and logistics knows how valuable prepaid burner cards are to his organization: “To give you an idea of how many prepaid transactions we conduct, consider that if all the prepaid cards sold on an average day at 7-Eleven stores were placed end to end, they would span more than 30 football fields.”
And don’t expect too much from the LG GS170. As of the time I wrote this, the T-Mobile LG GS170 showed that only “15 out of 49(31%)customers would recommend this product.”
Oh well.
Oh Thank Heaven!
