AT&T Buys Out T-Mobile

By

News broke yesterday that AT&T will be buying out T-Mobile for $39 billion. This is particularly hard news for me since I am a happy T-mobile customer and I have never been fond of AT&T. I am not alone in disliking AT&T, just look at the comments of any tech blog about this merger (i.e., Gizmodo, Engadget, Phandroid). Look at the JD Power & Associates reports for customer care scores.  Look at what the Apple co-founder, the Woz, said about AT&T.

This merger is saddening news for everyone that likes innovation and lower monthly wireless bills. T-Mobile along with Sprint did not have a "large" customer base like Verizon and AT&T, they had to make up for it in other ways, which were innovative and resulted in cheaper monthly bills for us . This meant "MyFaves" from T-Mobile and "night calling starting at 7pm and affordable unlimited plans" from Sprint. This meant that T-Mobile took a chance on Android. Verizon and AT&T play a more conservative game. With Sprint bleeding money every quarter, they soon will be bought out too, leaving an oligarchy of two giants, Verizon and AT&T. Do not drink the Kook-Aid that AT&T is selling about the US Wireless market being vibrant and competitive. While there are other small wireless carriers out there, like MetroPCS, they can not compete with Verizon and AT&T, their market share proves that.

The only hope we have is in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), they approve all mergers in the United States of America. They need to reject this merger. However, knowing the FCC, and their inability to protect, us, the consumers, this deal will go through.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Outdated! Charter Cable Box UI

By
Image
When I was living with my old roommates, we used Direct TV and Time Warner Cable to satisfy our TV cravings. While I hated, hate, and will always hate Direct TV for their barbaric two year contracts, I give them credit for having a neat looking user interface (UI). But because of their two year contract and lies, we cancelled. We paid about $400 dollars to get Direct TV's grubby paws out of our living room. At that point, it wasn't about the money, it was about principles. And so a happier relationship was started with Time Warner Cable. Though a lot of things were better with Time Warner Cable, I couldn't help but notice their cable boxes' UI was "fugly". Little did I know... Recently, I've moved away from the parents  old roommates. The new area I'm in is serviced by Charter Cable. I was shocked by the UI of the Charter cable boxes.  See picture below: The UI of the Charter cable box made Time Warner Cable's UI look like it was from the year
Read more

A Quick Reflection on My Change in View of Technology from 2008 to 2024

By
When I started this blog in 2008, I wanted to help others fall in love with technology. I figured the goal would not be difficult to attain, considering that in our human condition we thirst for technology. It is technology that makes our lives easier, more entertaining and live longer. It was very silly to think people needed convincing and that I could make a contribution to that human desire for technology.  That however was not my most important take away for this reflection. I made an assumption that technology was a net good thing. As of today, I am sure that technology is a net negative for our lives and society. This does not mean that I am against technology, only that we should not embrace all of it and we need training on how to use it.  How a person uses technology is what determines if it is good or bad. Unfortunately, we have used our tech to enslave us. I constantly see people walking outside looking at their phones. Or people looking at their phones while they are shari
Read more

The Best Android Keyboard: Swiftkey

By
Image
There are many keyboards out there for Android. To name a few, they are: Android Stock HTC Sense Samsung TouchWiz Swipe Swiftkey None of these keyboards are the perfection that is the iPhone keyboard. Hence, if you have an Android phone like me, you are stuck with the second best keyboard experience. The second best experience is not automatically a bad thing. Insane example, would you not like to be world's second richest person? Swiftkey is the best Android keyboard option for the simple reason that it will give you the fastest and most accurate experience. The auto-correction is the best in the business and it only gets better over time as it learns from your past inputs. Here is a comparison of the the previous version of Swiftkey versus the Ice Cream Sandwich stock keyboard. The newest Swiftkey introduced "flow" which is essentially Swipe. But you are not obligated to "flow", since you will still have the best auto-correcting ex
Read more