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Consumer rights groups wary of AT&T’s bid on former Verizon Wireless assets

By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 3:12 PM

att-logoWhat do you do when you’re closest rival leap-frogs over you to become the largest wireless carrier in the US? You do everything you can to close that gap – legal obligations and guidelines be damned.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T is trying to do just that. Big Blue has made it known that they’re interested in snapping up Verizon Wireless’s former assets (spectrum, infrastructure, etc.) that were put on the auction block as part of Verizon’s Alltel acquisition deal. AT&T’s interest in these assets didn’t go over all that well with public interest group Public Knowledge, and has drawn the ire of both the Rural Cellular Association and the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. These public interest groups are wary of the second-largest US wireless carrier acquiring assets from the No. 1 wireless carrier, potentially hurting the consumer in the end.

Regulatory bodies in the US had mandated that Verizon offload some $3 billion in rural wireless network assets before closing the Alltel merger deal. The divestiture stipulations were intended to preserve market competition in certain areas. Now that Verizon has officially taken Alltel under its wing and the assets are on the market, there are concerns that AT&T’s acquisition of Verizon’s rural assets would hurt market competition – which is the reason Verizon was required to divest those assets in the first place.

The US Department of Justice will evaluate the sale of Verizon’s former assets to ensure that the sale of these assets doesn’t hurt the local market or the consumers.

[Via: PhoneScoop]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • John Carol

    I have a cell phone contract that’s got to go! According to consumer action cell phone contracts with company’s such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are becoming more and more expensive and there is nothing we can do about it. If you don’t have an expensive unlimited cell phone plan you may end up paying overage fees of up to 45 cents per minute. All the contract company’s just decided to up there text messages to more than 20 cents per message, we paid 10 cents in 2005 and this rise is unjustified in relation to inflation or their costs of delivering the message. So if you don’t like the new charges you can terminate the contract early but only if you are prepared to pay between $150-$200 in termination fees and that is only available for some contracts in their second year. The other very scary thing about contract phones is that after your contract time is up they just renew the contract without notifying you so if you don’t pay attention and cancel the contract in writing and with a notice period you’ll find yourself roped into another two years of exorbitant bills. I also discovered that these contract companies have been cheating immigrants with international calling cards.
    So what can we do about it?
    I suggest that if you have a cell phone contract, you should find out when it expires and wright a letter within the 30 day notice period terminating the contract. Then go out and get a prepaid wireless contract that will cost you a fraction of the price. I’ve bought a Tracfone and I’m saving money every month, I hear that Net 10 is also a good option.