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This is perhaps the biggest move in this case yet. The United States government (Department of Justice, to be exact) has reportedly filed to block AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile for $39 billion, citing anti-trust laws being violated as AT&T would be taking substantial competition off the market.
“AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the U.S. said in its filing.
While many in government, including Governors and Senators, have already expressed their distaste with AT&T and Deutsche Telekom’s proposal, the US DoJ backing everyone else’s concerns is about as big as it gets. It’s a significant blow to AT&T and T-Mobile, though it doesn’t necessarily mean their hopes are completely dashed. Developing… [Bloomberg]
Damn I so f-ing happy now.
as a current AT&T customer, i am also overjoyed
I tried to match my current plan on AT&T’s website yesterday and it came out to $115/month verses the $60 I’m paying now. T-mobile would be more expensive then $60 but thankfully tethering is free on my Nexus.
This is great news for T-Mobile customers! I just changed from 1 t-mobile plan to their new unlimited plan yesterday. You can’t beat it. I have 5 phones on my account and I’m paying $115 per month (only 2 have unlimited data). The fact that I can use my data plan to tether my laptop and gtab without an additional charge makes this company the best carrier.
Well Technically you are supposed to…..But T-mo wont hunt you down like the other carriers. But if people buy an unlimited plan…We should be free to use our data how we see fit.
“United States Government Files Anti-Trust Complaint to Block AT&T’s Purchase of AT&T”
Wait… What?! AT&T cant purchase AT&T? Then who can??
LMAO, this did get come out of now where give him a few minutes to correct it.
LOL! Yea I was typing way faster than I was thinking. Fixed.
Too excited? Me too!
Great news but you might want to fix the title. It says AT&T to buy AT&T
I believe that the title is supposed to make you curious enough to click it, then at the top you see the big giant icon that explains it…
#corrections
“purchase of AT&T” = T-Mobile
Such a big move against
At&t can’t even buy themselves? Dang, that’s hardcore.
I also like how the DoJ filed with the Justice Department :)
Makes you wonder. Do they just walk it down the hall? LOL.
FIST PUMP
All T-mo needs is the Nexus Prime and i’ll be very happy! thankfully no att takeover
It’s not over yet folks. Hold on to your britches.
This has just made my day… I hope this completes a block of this sale. There are just too many things wrong with this one to go down…
Don’t call it a loss yet folks.
Thank you US. GOVT, people are starting to realize that ATT sucks. Even are own govt.
what phone company are you with. I have been with att for close to 12 yrs now and have never had an issue with them. So I wish someone could tell me what it is that sucks so bad about att. Verizon sells phones on contract for $300 does any other company have that high of a price on phones, no. I know at one time att was tied down by apple but now you can see what apple is doing to Verizon. You can bet that the iphone 5 won’t cost $300 on contract on Verizon. So now again, someone please tell me with factual proof as to why att sucks so bad.
Woo!!! Once they block it like a champ, I can get the Nexus Prime (or whatever it’s gonna be called) and re-up my contract. Long live T-Mobile!
Yea and whats going to happen to T-mo if they dont get bought? They’ve already thrown their eggs in the basket and fucked over their customers and their customers service
Tmo will be fine, they will get a crapload of money from ATT, and life will go on.
They get 6 billions if the merger fails, so this is great news for T-mo
Funny.. but they continued to upgrade their network and are still doing so.. They continue to offer awesome phones.. they continued to operate as if nothing was going on with the merger.. I don’t see where they screwed anybody over.. If anything, there were customers who screwed themselves by jumping ship too early.
See, and you silly Americans were all freaking out about your government just taking your money and robbing you blind. Here you go, your government is actually looking out for your interests and protecting you from greed of powerful and rich individuals and corporations. Is that so hard to understand…?
The other way of looking at this for the more cynically inclined, is that the corrupt government, like a Mafia Don, has to intervene, block the sale in order to negotiate their piece of the action. Time will tell.
There are a lot of people in the DOJ who also want to sic the anti-trust dog on Google and break it up.
Or more possibly, they want access to the data that passes through their mail and other programs and use the anti-trust threat as a bludgeon in order to obtain compliance.
Or maybe I’ve just seen one too many conspiracy movies…….
HAHAHAHA. I needed a laugh this morning, and that was it. Thanks!
Have you ever studied our govt.? They don’t do things in the interest of good for the people. They only stepped in because they probably want a piece of the pie and will offer to bailout tmo when they fail. Look back thru history and find something that our greedy corporate govt.has done for the people of this Country. Our govt is far more corrupt than att will ever be.
I’m sure you’ll be singing a different tune when the same government that’s in charge of watching out for wardrobe malfunctions during the superbowl is now in control over the entire internet.
I don’t see why anybody with AT&T would be happy the merger isn’t going through. The merger would only benefit current AT&T customers by more coverage not increase in prices. When has AT&T ever increased rate plan prices when they buy a company….let me answer that never! I was looking forward to the merger because T-mobile as a carrier will eventually fall under or get absorbed by somebody else eventually.
Because. If T-Mobile is gone. ATT will shaft us more then they are already. The only reason I stay with them is I travel a lot for work, and T-Mobile does not have coverage where I go. It is only Verizon and ATT. Therefore, I am stuck between those two carriers.
You guys are all so happy that this sale might not happen but what you fail to realize is that tmo is in financial trouble and losing money our they wouldn’t want to sell in the first place.
How happy will you be when they pull out of the U.S. market. I know it’s not the best to have them taken over but when they fold who will you turn to then? Sprint? They are losing money also, Verizon? They are charging sky hi prices for phones that have lte. They are becoming similar to a Canadian carrier where as they will be charging almost as much on contract as off.
Just something to ponder.
T-Mobile at least won’t be absorbed by the evil empire. If they pull out maybe Sprint can absorb their assets.
If this merger falls through, T-mo get’s a crap-ton of money plus Billions worth of spectrum from the Deathstar just for agreeing to their terms…. Win-Win for DT.
They are not in trouble and losing money.. they have continued to make profits.. they don’t make as large profits as AT&T and Verizon, but THEY ARE NOT LOSING MONEY.. and they invest in their network and keep upgrading it.. This whole merger/buyout thing has made people think they were worse off than they were.. even after the mistake DT made in this whole thing, and losing customers because of it.. They still post PROFITS.
Test
Just throwing it out there that the URL still says “…block-atts-purchase-of-att/”. Funny stuff Quentyn. I’m happy though because I really want to upgrade from this mt4g and didn’t really want to due to uncertainty. I feel like I can do it now without too many issues. :D
GOOD. I AM HAPPY SINCE ATT HAD ALREADY STARTED TO ADVERTISE AS THEY HAD ALREADY BOUGHT TMO. WHAT A BURN BIT**ES
I think T-Mobile should be bought By Google. G-Mobile sounds just right.
How about G-Moto-Mobile? That would stifle innovation and would look more like Apple. Controlling everthing.
I don’t see it as stifling innovation as much, I see it as guaranteeing that there is a place for android to be. Much like the Moto acquisition. Google has already confirmed that Motorola will be its own company and continue to work on its own, just google as the Parent company.
controlling everything to mean
-no bloatware on phones
– no silly experiments such as Bing on your android phone
-no phony ‘unlimited’ pricing which is really tiered. Just use the internet like you would on a PC
-no need to wait 10 years just to get a security update
I still think Sprint should be bought by Google, they seem to be partnering tight lately with G-Voice integration and all. But they already bought Motorola so who knows….
that sounds so cool that its now stuck in my head!!! lol
Test
Just like your other test….They work.
I guess AT&T couldn’t pay off the politicians. Tmobile might be going under but with 3 billion in cash along with spectrum and a iPhone coming should right the ship.
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I’m reading some of the comments and people are saying sprint should take there assets or better yet absorb them. If t-mobile disappears at the end of the day AT&T will still be a monopoly and be the only major GSM carrier option so why not allow AT&T to have t-mobile and actually bring value to GSM instead of letting Sprint get them (which would contradict everything sprints been fighting against in this merger) and make a horrible GSM to CDMA transition for t-mobiles customers then it would be if AT&T got them. Somebody mention T-mobile is in financial trouble and I guarantee you even if they get 3 billion from AT&T they will squander that money. T-mobile has not ran there business well enough financially and that is part of the reason T-mobile in germany stop investing in them. I don’t believe in companies always absorbing and buying companies and getting larger however this merger had positive benefits. Why not knock on googles door for every company they buy. They are buying companies left to right and nobody is even blinking a eye at them.
I don’t find this surprising at all. Actually, I would have been surprised if the Fed allowed this to go through without taking any issue. It would’ve been a bit silly for the US Government to use the Sherman Act to break AT&T up into a long distance company and seven regional carriers (“Baby Bells” – which is why I laugh when I see someone call AT&T “Ma Bell” – Ma Bell hasn’t existed for over 25 years, a lot of people weren’t even alive then), then gradually allow them to buy up smaller companies (Cingular, Dobson, Centennial) until they get almost to where they were before the anti-trust breakup.
While this is good news, I wouldn’t jump for joy just yet; Deutsche Telecom is still looking to unload T-Mo USA. Let’s hope that whoever does end up with TMo doesn’t ruin it. While I’m not a TMo customer, I don’t want them to change (except for the better); they’ve always been very Android-friendly, and have had the best Android lineups of any carrier – even if they don’t have the best coverage.
Here is the actual case filing:
http://tinyurl.com/44lx4qo
Am I wrong for thinking that a successful T-Mobile/AT&T merger would pressure Verizon into stepping their game up? They wouldn’t be #1 anymore. Maybe they’d shut the crap up about their network and stop charging $300 for subsidized phones.
Thank god! Hurray
Why this deal will probably go through in the end:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/206689/20110831/at-t-t-mobile-merger-block-lawsuit-union-cwa.htm
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has branded the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) plan to file a lawsuit to block the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile as “simply wrong.”…
The union also knocked T-Mobile, which is not unionized.
“In a nation where workers’ rights are routinely violated, as occurs every day at T-Mobile, the DoJ apparently believes that workers should be on their own instead of having a fair choice about union representation,” CWA stated.
While unions had their place at one time, when they get too big, they ruin things. Just look at Detroit. The Autoworkers Union wouldn’t relent and now look where they are. The unemployed in Detroit is terrible. My sons live and work there and have a bird’s eye view on what unions did. My oldest son (a mechanical engineer) makes a good living, but people who did not even graduate from high school that were in the union made as much money as him. It comes back to bite you in the ass. I fully blame the Autoworkers Union for the high prices of cars and the eventual downfall of the car industry in America. The CWA is doing the same for the cell phone industry. Why do you think AT&T has such high prices? It’s to pay the union workers. And since the workers know they can’t get fired, the customer service SUCKS, they’re rude, and so on. There is a reason why ATT customer service is in last place, and the union is to blame for it. So take anything the union says with a grain of salt. It’s better to earn your way then have it handed to you.
Union workers can get fired like anybody else, having a union is kind of like having a lawyer, and if you ain’t got a good case your going to get fired.. That CWA your so fired up against fought to bring back jobs to the US, and they are still working on getting more.. The auto industry failures were not caused by the union workers as much as by what the designers were designing.. the workers turned their wrenches, but come on.. they didn’t design the crap they were building.. It has also been a long time since having a degree automatically meant higher wages.. The US has long since switched from a manufacturing economy, to a service economy.. You can blame the unions, but really it’s just big companies going overseas for slave labor, so people can buy cheap crap at Walmart.. and these companies did it whether there was a union or not.
Do any of these morons that post these “I just got a new LED tv for 22 cents and the delivery man gave me a blow job” really think that anyone will go to their stupid sites. Don’t they get it that it drives people away in droves? Sorry about feeding the troll. My apologies to the real users here.
Thank’s god, l am so happy to hear this wonderful news,and also l wants to say thank’s to the u,s gov.@