AT&T’s Randall Stephenson said that customers can expect wireless service prices to go up thanks to the feds’ blocking of the $36 billion T-Mobile deal.
It all boils down to bandwidth, or lack thereof. He said one of the major reasons it was trying to buy T-Mobile was to get more wireless spectrum and without that, it won’t be able to offer advanced services at the same prices it is currently offering. He also said that having more competition in the wireless space actually leads to higher prices.
“The more competitors you have, the less efficient the allocation of spectrum will be,” Stephenson said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “It’s got to change. I don’t think the market’s going to accommodate the number of competitors there are in the landscape.”
The government didn’t seem to agree, as one of the reasons it blocked the deal was because it felt like the lack of competition would actually hurt users because when you have less options to choose from, you’re more exposed to the whims of those companies. I think AT&T has a legitimate point about the “spectrum crunch” but that doesn’t mean consumers will be happy with price hikes.
[Via Wall Street Journal]