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FCC Chair Fires Back at AT&T CEO Over Pricing

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Who is right here?

marufio

May 8, 2012, 12:00 PM
Is it the person in the FCC or is it ATT for having the money to buy a business?
The Rule is Verizon, Sprint, ATT and Tmobile can never be combined. Someone should have told ATT this before attempting.
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JBlaze74

May 8, 2012, 12:18 PM
Probably should have, but you still have to agree that the logic from AT&T is warped. How is having fewer companies in the marketplace good for competition? How does having 2-3 large carriers cause a reduction in pricing? The answer to both, it isn't and doesn't. Kudos to AT&T for attempting to play the victim and using it as justification to raise their prices. I have no sympathy.
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acdc1a

May 8, 2012, 12:34 PM
I can't give kudos to AT&T for playing the victim here. They knew the type of political environment they were in and they chose to give it a try regardless. That's not good business sense.

Additionally, trying to raise prices and claim it's because of too much competition is lunacy. AT&T will purge customers if they start this. The people who think that just because it's only for new customers will keep them from purging customers are also mistaken. If you don't put more customers on than churn off you purge customers. It's that simple.
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JBlaze74

May 8, 2012, 1:12 PM
I agree totally. Sarcasm doesn't always translate well on here, lol. Honestly, I don't trust "grandfathering." All they have to do is rename the plan, repackage it and expire the original plan. All of a sudden, you need to change your price plan the next time you make a change on your account. I find it funny that they announce shared data plans on the heels of the announcement about rate increases. Hmm... might just have to change your price plan to have shared data... just saying.
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Luar

May 8, 2012, 2:20 PM
I have to say that AT&T just does not stop surprising me. Sooner than later there customers will get fed up with all there BS on raising prices and the only one that will really be affected in the end will be AT&T. I do like what they are doing with there network and constant improvements and expansion but to blame rasing prices on a failed merger come on now , Really???
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iljaaf21

May 9, 2012, 2:38 PM
I just want to interject here: AT&T isn't raising the prices because the failed merger means more competition. They're doing it because they were banking on the new towers from T-Mo to help expand the LTE coverage. I still believe it's a load of ish, but they say they're raising the prices because it's gonna cost them more to build more towers and convert the old 2G towers to 3G and LTE for their backhaul.
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Joshmo

May 9, 2012, 3:45 PM
I think he was also coming from the point of "There is only so much spectrum to use, and the more players there are the more we've gotta share, thus the less overall bandwidth we'll have."

I understand what they meant by it. And he's not wrong, it is TRUE, but....

they don't HAVE to raise their pricing.

They could just always switch everyone off 1g, 2g, 3g, and switch the entire network to LTE and migrate everyone over to an LTE device.

That'd give ya more spectrum.
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iljaaf21

May 9, 2012, 4:20 PM
First off, I never said he was completely wrong.

There is no more 1G network. That was gone when SIM cards were created.

They ARE working on switching everyone off of 2G. (And like I said, that's what they're claiming they're raising the prices for.) They've been working on that for the past 3 years, at least. The problem with that is that no matter how many letters they send out, and how awesome the offer is for the customer, they have to wait on the customer right now to come in and upgrade.

They won't get rid of the 3G network. It's the backhaul system. If the LTE goes out, every phone reverts back to the HSP+. That's what makes them the best 4G network right now. No one else is using that backhaul technology.
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flash400runner

May 11, 2012, 3:45 PM
they dont have to wait for the customer at all. they send out 1 letter stating that as of xx/xx the 2g network will be turned off and dismantled and if they want to continue to receive service they can move to a newer phone or move to a different carrier. problem solved
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cheechnotchong

May 11, 2012, 3:50 PM
Fight the power! Lol. But really. AT&T is going to pull every trick that they can to make it look like the FCC was the bad guy. (not saying that they aren't at times, in this case though completely innocent and just) I don't remember the name of which of you said kudos to them for playing the poor baby routine but I agree lol. It takes some audacity to try and do that when they HAVE to know that they are digging themselves down. I'm at work right now so I wouldn't really articulate this as well as normal but I hope my point comes across!
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iljaaf21

May 9, 2012, 4:31 PM
I don't think you realize how the spectrum works. Currently, no other carrier uses the same spectrum frequency as AT&T. So, even if the T-Mo merger had been approved, they would have had to convert and tweak each of those towers to fit the AT&T spectrum.

The only companies that share towers right now are mostly the small guys like Metro, Straight Talk, etc.
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T Bone

May 9, 2012, 11:48 AM
"How is having fewer companies in the marketplace good for competition?"

Eliminating a weak competitor DOES improve competition, think about it..,,,,wouldn't the NBA be far more competitive if they kicked out all the teams that haven't had a winning season in 10 years? Does the presence of the Los Angelos Clippers actually increase competition? I don't think it does.
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Jarahawk

May 10, 2012, 5:02 PM
So because the Lakers and Celtics have won half of the NBA championships should we simply eliminate the other twenty-eight franchises? Ludicrous. Oh and the Clippers have Chris Paul and Blake Griffin now and are in the playoffs and quite competitive. But had they been contracted because they historically WERE bad their fans would not have lived to see this day. Try again.
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Jarahawk

May 8, 2012, 9:18 PM
We did! I actually thought it was an April Fool's joke. More importantly...T-Mobile told them. Why do you think there were concessions made to T-Mobile as far as cash, spectrum and roaming agreements?

T-Mobile: "They are NEVER going to allow this, you know this right?"

AT&T: "Trust me! I'm going to throw some cash at politicians from BOTH sides of the aisle. They will have that chicken$#!t Genachowsk heel and we will be united in unholy matrimony."

T-Mobile: What if you're wrong? I put my @$$ out there and they say no. Uh-uh. I'm going to need a sweetner.

AT&T: What did you have in mind?

So T-Mobile names a ridiculous price and AT&T arrogantly accepts. It's their own fault for being smug, arrogant and foolish....
(continues)
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