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Sprint: Purchase of T-Mobile Promotes Competition

posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday March 11 2014, @03:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the Opposite-Day dept.

youngatheart writes:

"When does merging two companies make for more marketplace competition? When they aren't big enough to compete with the other giants in the industry. At least that's the logic behind the argument that Sprint should be allowed to acquire T-Mobile. I'm wondering what this means for MetroPCS users like me now that we're T-Mobile users by the previous merger."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by gishzida on Tuesday March 11 2014, @03:12PM

    by gishzida (2870) on Tuesday March 11 2014, @03:12PM (#14775) Journal

    As long as carriers are permitted to lock users into contracts... there will be no competition... Then there is the problem of DATA pricing... We are getting screwed in the U.S. both on service pricing and DATA pricing... We are not the "Land of the Free"

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday March 11 2014, @04:58PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Tuesday March 11 2014, @04:58PM (#14851)

    T-mobile is one of the biggest providers of not locking users into contracts. My guess is once this merger is bribed through, my $30 5GB no-contract prepaid plan is going to go away.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:09PM

      by frojack (1554) on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:09PM (#14865)

      You are probably right, the price war stops as soon as the merger happens. Right now the little carriers are leading the charge to better prices. Once they become big consolidated carriers the incremental damage of a price drop parlays into hundreds of millions of dollars and suddenly the fervor for price reductions disappear.

      Besides, in spite of all these so called price cuts, cell bills have actually been going UP.
      http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/article s/2014/03/10/372745-us-mobile-bills-rise-even-as-p rice-war.htm [techzone360.com]

      --
      Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by akinliat on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:46PM

      by akinliat (1898) <akinliatNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:46PM (#14891)

      I'm not sure that this would be the case, and even if it were, there are other options available, namely the various MVNOs. For instance, my carrier is Ting (who you might better know as Tucows). While they still have usage tiers, they basically charge me on a pay-as-you-go basis. If I use 100 minutes or less, it's $3. If I use between 100 and 500 minutes, it's $9. The same goes for data and text. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I've been doing business with Tucows for years, so I know that I can count on them, but they're not the only MVNO. Virgin Mobile offers similar "plans."

      Both of these carriers use the Sprint network. Verizon and AT&T have their own MVNOs that use their networks. If you don't like what's available from the major carriers (and I'll admit that the options do suck), then you probably should take a look at the MVNOs. It's likely that you'll find better deals, and you'll still be using the same cellular network.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 12 2014, @01:36AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 12 2014, @01:36AM (#15045)

      T-mobile is one of the biggest providers of not locking users into contracts.

      I had a Sprint PCS phone in 2000, and once they started promoting their "evenings and weekends" deal, the network became all but inaccessible. I got constant "system busy" messages trying to dial out.

      When I called Sprint to address the lack of service, they basically told me to live with it. They weren't going to change anything. So, I told them to cancel my contract. They told me I'd have to pay an early termination fee. I told them to stuff it, since they broke the contract first by not providing the service I was paying for.

      So they referred me to a collection agency.

      I swore then that I would never do business with those sons of bitches again, and if they buy T-Mobile, I would hate to give up my iPhone 4s which I waited so long for T-Mobile to support. Hope it doesn't happen soon.

  • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:14PM

    by davester666 (155) on Tuesday March 11 2014, @05:14PM (#14869)

    Hey, the carriers are free to charge you extra to transfer data from your phone to your computer...