T-Mobile, Verizon In Talks To Buy Parts of US Cellular (reuters.com) 18
T-Mobile and Verizon are in talks to buy parts of U.S. Ceullar in separate transactions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Reuters reports: T-Mobile is closing in on a deal to buy a chunk of U.S. Cellular for more than $2 billion, taking over some operations and wireless spectrum licenses, the report said citing people familiar with the matter. Verizon's talks with the regional carrier is expected to take longer and might not result in an agreement, the report added.
Good job, free market. ` (Score:1)
So when do the normal people start benefiting from this 'free market' capitalism that I keep hearing about?
Oh, wait. Our politicians have sold out yet again?!? I am SO SURPRISED.
Remember, Reagan-boomers. You did this. Too bad your flip phone won't be $5 a month anymore.
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WTF are you going on about?
Sounds like another person that wants to burn down the patriarchy.
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In the filings for these mergers the company will always claim the merger will benefit consumers. It never benefits consumers. Prices won't decrease and now there is one less competitor in the market.
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It's really annoying.
Back in the day the phone companies were broken up and in the 90s the US had by far the cheapest telecommunications of the large economies.
Now the cable companies have a similar monopoly and once again US telecom is more expensive.
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We just shrunk to 3 recently, so we're on our way there.
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They never do.
Free market capitalism benefits those with capital. If you don't have capital, you don't benefit.
These days, the life of a billionaire is extremely easy. The life of a millionaire is not.
For this normal person.... (Score:2)
So when do the normal people start benefiting from this 'free market' capitalism that I keep hearing about?
Since 2018, inflation has increased 21%. Back then, a $17/mo mobile plan got me with unlimited calling, texting, and 0.5G of data. Today I get unlimited everything (high-speed data capped at 30G) for the same price.
My phone cost $250 and is more powerful than most of my previous computers.
I'd say things are going pretty well for this normal person, at least in terms of telecom.
Dish lost a big chance. (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the most difficult things to do in cellular land is to get leases to install the equipment (antenas, mostly).
Form Neigborhoods that do not accept for aestetic reasons, then dumb people arguing that the 5G towers will activate the magnetic covid vaccine particles, the list goes on and on.
Dish was supposed to be a fourth condender, but time and again, they have fallen behind in the deadlines for rollout. Acquiring US Celluar wholesale would have been a great way to accelerate that rollout by virtue of the ammount of sides already negotiated, but, alas, it is not going to be
PS: Please, bear in mind that US Cellular is a REGIONAL carrier in the USoA. The only that approaches a national carrier (as that is understood in the rest of the world) status are Verizon, AT&T, T-MOB & Dish
Re: Dish lost a big chance. (Score:4, Interesting)
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I think that's only true for the Nordic countries. The rest of Europe, and most of the rest of the world, in this respect, is pretty much like the US. Well, like the US now at least, in the pre-LTE era you had Verizon & Sprint running a completely incompatible to anything else CDMA network (for historical reasons of course, as it actually came before GSM).
Re: Dish lost a big chance. (Score:2)
it's like water, electric, gas. You shouldn't have *multiple* providers of infrastructure. Wireless just makes it less invasive
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There's a single network standard, GSM. Service providers aren't also the network operators. They *can* be but they aren't running literal duplicative networks to my knowledge.
Your knowledge is off for the, probably, vast majority of Europe. There are major private network operators who roll out their own network and even use different bands. "Exotic" bands are not used in Europe, so at least any (unlocked) new phone you buy will work with all networks - but the coverage varies from operator to operator. It's obviously not efficient, duplicating infrastructure like that is indeed a bad idea. Nordic countries have the most industrious governments in general, so they've done well i
Re: Dish lost a big chance. (Score:2)
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It depends on the place? I don't really follow myself (I have a friend who goes around charting each antenna - there's an app that open sources this), but from what I understand it is also common to have multiple antennas on one tower/location. But, as I said, coverage can vary wildly, so each operator does their own rollout.
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No thanks. I remember what it was like having a single national carrier called AT&T. And then being stuck with a single regional carrier after AT&T was broken apart. Phone lines were expensive. Individual phone calls were expensive. I'm much, MUCH happier being able to get cheap, inexpensive plans today were I pay a flat fee with no additional charges for each individual phone call.
Re: Dish lost a big chance. (Score:2)