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Will anything stop the AT&T-T-Mobile merger?

Molly Wood May 10, 2011
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Will anything stop the AT&T-T-Mobile merger?

Molly Wood May 10, 2011
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AT&T first announced plans to acquire its competitor, T-Mobile, back on March 20th of this year. The deal would eliminate one player in the wireless market, T-Mobile, and allow another player, AT&T, to absorb it. The Senate will be considering what kind of impact such a move would have on consumers who would be left with 25 percent less choice in choosing a wireless carrier. AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint CEOs will be on hand to testify. Sprint is going to say that this merger would create a duopoly and kill jobs. AT&T and T-Mobile will say that’s not true. Verizon isn’t showing up at all; it’s chosen to largely stay out of the debate.

We talk to Susan Crawford, professor at Cardozo Law School. She says the only thing that will stop a merger like this is if people get irate about fewer choices and rise up and demand that it be stopped. But she doubts that such an issue will engender the kind of anti-trust fervor once volleyed against Standard Oil. She thinks that might be different if people traveled to other countries where Internet speeds are much faster than what we’ve grown accustomed to in the U.S.

We also talk with Larry Downes from the think tank Tech Freedom. He thinks that a merger of the two companies will mean that the new entity will have a better chance to serve customers a superior experience through a faster 4G network. Might not be such good news for T-Mobile customers, however, who would be bumped down to 3G.

Also in this program, South Korean scientists have found a way to convert sound into energy. They see it as a way to eventually power phones by talking into them or making loud noises. We look at the Good News and Bad News of this technology.

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