We the recent announcement of AT&T making a bid to by T-Mobile for $39 billion does Verizon have anything to worry about in the upcoming change in the economy for wireless devices? Verizon says they have nothing to worry about at least in the short term, but in the long run to stay in the game they will need to do something. They will have to stay technologically ahead of AT&T or have better service. Either way this buy out is a major change to the wireless world because it will change the wireless service as we know it. With this buy out it will leave only 3 major wireless in America. But what most are concerned about is a monopolization. With a monopoly one company takes over all the other companies in its field of work leaving only one choice for buyer. The scarcity of services would decrease to one as all other companies would be bought out or run out of business. This could negatively affect the economy because they could drive prices up because there would be no competition. This would mean people would be forced to pay this price or not have a wireless server. Leaving less money to be spent in other areas of the economy.
8 comments:
The monopoly issue probably won't turn into a huge concern. I think regulators will probably be keeping a closer eye on AT&T for two reasons. The first is because there is so much talk of AT&T becoming a monopoly, drawing attention to it. The second is because AT&T has a reputation with this issue because of the Southwestern Bell incident. They'll probably be watching AT&T very closely.
I honestly don't think Verizon can stay ahead of AT&T. There was a reason in the first place Verizon was stuck in second place of AT&T, with them buying out T-Mobile, Verizon will surely fall. The fact AT&T is buying out a company is a bad idea, they have to cut people off. This in the end will hurt our economy, we need more jobs and more employment, not less jobs and more unemployment.
I agree with Alison. There is a law against monopolies and the regulators will not let that get out of hand. I'm also not sure if this buy out with improve AT&Ts service much either. The main benefit from this will go to Apple. Apple will not have T-Mobile customers seeking to get the iPhone but could not because their server did not supply it. It think out of anyone, Apple is going surge ahead even more than the rest of its competition.
If what is said about the extra towers is true, I think this could greatly improve AT&T's service. However, along with more towers, the company will be inheriting all of the customers currently in contract with T Mobile. AT&T appears to have problems with service because they have too many customers with limited resources, so this deal may help some, but not as greatly as it would if they acquired the towers without the customers. If AT&T does not show a great improvement in service, Verizon may see more customers and they may actually benefit from the deal.
I'm personally concerned about the fact that we may have a monopoly in the wireless cellphone market. With only three company's left I think we can expect for prices to go up for consumers. A data plan that is overly expensive would hurt many looking for a good unlimited plan offered by previous competition. I think AT&t's purchase can only have a negative impact on everyone.
I agree that there is a possibility for a monopoly, but also that the government is likely paying great attention to this issue. I’m not sure that Verizon can stay afloat as AT&T grows, but I think that they will definitely put up a fight. I think that the recent availability of the iPhone to Verizon users has definitely increased and even replaced some of the profit that Verizon lost when many users switched cell phone providers because the iPhone was only available at AT&T. I think AT&T will only seek to further expand their dominance within the wireless industry, and I’m not sure what their intentions are by buying out other cell phone providers. AT&T is obviously taking over the industry, but I’m not sure that they are prepared for the kind of numbers that they would gain by continuing to expand the company. Potentially, AT&T can be the sole wireless provider for the United States and I’m not sure that their company could actually handle having to provide service to that many people. When the iPhone was first released, there were a lot of problems with dropped calls and things along those lines, I think that if AT&T became a monopoly, they would not be able to handle that type of capacity. Although, I do not think that the U.S. government will let it get to that point, but it is definitely a prevalent fear.
Verizon and AT&T are becoming the top two leaders in the world of wireless phones. I do believe that regulators will be watching AT&T a lot to make sure that there is no monopoly happening, especially since it is against the law. Our market is based on competition between companies. Even though AT&T is going to keep growing, especially since it is buying T-Mobile, Verizon will keep growing too because they are both competing against each other. There are still other companies but AT&T and Verizon are at the top and they are both going to continue to try and get better than the other. I do agree with Garrett. AT&T buying the company will make more people lose their jobs, which will cause even more debt for our economy and maybe even more issues with dropped calls and such because the number of customers will rise. AT&T and Verizon are putting up a good fight against each other, especially since Verizon has the iphone. I do agree with Arin. The fact is that if AT&T was to become the only cell phone company around, they could not handle the amount of numbers they would get. This is an issue, but I think that the U.S government will keep a close eye on it so that a monopoly will not happen.
Verizon and AT&T have always been rivals. When the iPhone came out AT&T got ahold of it before everyone else and a substantial amount of people fled to AT&T. Now both companies have the iPhone as one of there wireless phone options. So the competition is fierce. AT&T made a smart move buying T-mobile because they eliminated some of the competition. I am worried about it effecting the economy and I really hope Verizon figures something out so that selling their company to AT&T isn't an option. There are so many negative outcomes to AT&T being the only cell phone company and the U.S Government will hopefully watch over this issue carefully.
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