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There is no world in which the government should be able to force a private company to give something hugely valuable to, of all possible options, Comcast (one
by SeoxyS 8y ago
There is no world in which the government should be able to force a private company to give something hugely valuable to, of all possible options, Comcast (one of the worst companies in America).
- mrkurt 8y agoMergers are costly to society because they concentrate power. The government should _absolutely_ prevent mergers that concentrate power, or otherwise redistribute that power. I'd rather them just block these things like they did up until the early 2000s ... but it's not unreasonable for them to break up the government granted monopoly on spectrums if they do allow mergers.
- koolba 8y agoOne could argue that a stronger combined company could better take on AT&T and Verizon. It’s not simply “mergers are bad for customers”.
- sjm-lbm 8y agoYeah, this merger (for whatever reason) reminds me a lot of the US Air/American Airlines merger of a few years ago. On the one hand, going from 4 to 3 'major' players seems an obvious loss for consumers. On the other hand, unless these two combine, I don't really see either of them able to really challenge AT&T/Verizon long term, which means that a merger to create three large players is better for consumers than a series of events that ultimately ends with two major players - and that seems like a fairly realistic outcome in this space.
- rizwank 8y agoTotally agree that 3 big ones are better than 2 big and 2 small. I feel this gets lost in reporting.
- martinald 8y agoThe EU did a lot of analysis about this between member states. It concluded that markets with 4 or more providers were far better served (price, quality, coverage, etc) than those with 3 (which effectively is what the US will have now). The UK blocked the merger of 3 and O2 on these grounds, as it would leave only 3 providers.
- chrischen 8y agoDoes sprint even count as a provider? The size of the players must matter? If you have 4 players and 3 are there in name only, surely that can't still be true?
- kennethologist 8y agoDo you have some source for the EU analysis would love to read this in depth? Googling doesn't turn up anything related.
- martinald 8y agohttp://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-1705_en.htm http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-1705_en.htm is a starting point, but I can't find the EUs own source.
- kelnos 8y agoFrom the looks of it, Sprint will be bankrupt in a few years anyway, and then we'll still end up with 3 providers, but likely Verizon and AT&T (in addition to T-Mobile) will buy up parts of its carcass. I'd rather T-Mo gets it all, now, rather than have all three companies fight over the scraps, later.
- r00fus 8y agoNice ideology. Reality is quite different. Companies in large mergers or with consolidated industries often have to make concessions to regulators to proceed with the merger.
- toasterlovin 8y agoFwiw, I think the person you are replying to was concerned more about the fact that Comcast would benefit than that T-Mobile would be forced to make concessions.
- icebraining 8y agoSpectrum does not belong to private companies, it's a license granted by the government.