ABiz -> Acadiana Business THU, JUL 7 11:13AM by Leslie Turk

AT&T/T-Mobile deal gets another nod of approval

The Louisiana Public Service Commission is still gathering public comments on the proposed $39 billion AT&T/T-Mobile deal, but earlier this week Arizona’s public utility approved the merger in that state without a hearing.

In late May the Louisiana PSC announced that it was opening a proceeding to allow the general public to file comments on the proposed buyout of T-Mobile USA by AT&T. The commission did not indicate that it would launch an investigation into the deal, noting instead that the state would make recommendations to federal regulators based on the comments it receives on the deal. The commission could recommend the deal to the FCC and FTC, or indicate opposition to it.

“As the Louisiana PSC conducts its fact gathering, we are also confident they will agree it benefits the public interest, including a significant expansion of mobile broadband across the state, particularly in rural areas,” says AT&T-Louisiana spokeswoman Kim Allen.

“A combined AT&T and T-Mobile will bring our customers a stronger Louisiana network more quickly than either company could alone," Allen adds. She says customers will see significant service improvements as AT&T increases network capacity and coverage as a result of the merger, which Allen contends "will add 55 million customers in small towns and rural areas who today are without our most modern wireless technology."

Read ABiz Publisher Cherry Fisher May's take on how the merger will benefit the state here.

Louisiana's decision to open comments came after Sprint petitioned state officials to investigate the merger, Wireless Week reported in May.

Read more about Arizona's nod to the deal here.



Comments (10)add
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written by Marcus H. , July 07, 2011 - 05:28 pm
Please rethink your stance that this merger is going to be benificial to everyone. The only one who will benifit is at&t. The spectrum crisis that at&t claims they have is nonsence. Of all the wireless carriers at&t is the only one claiming they're having trouble keeping up with data traffic on their network. As for T-mobile, their only problem is the lack of competitive devices. Eliminate exclucive deals and allow companies to have a fair shot at the higher end devices like droid charge, evo, Nexus, and some not so great phones like the iphone. It drops calls liike crazy and runs up phantom data charges yet people are still willing to buy iphone cuz the next man has one. Bottom line the devil is a liar. Fcc doj, do at least one right thing in your lives, vote no and force at&t to do what every other carrier had to do. Invest its money in its own network. They have $39 billion to buy tmobile but they cant spend it along with the unused spectrum they have stockpiled and make network improvements?
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written by Hank Fisher , July 07, 2011 - 05:29 pm
Way to go Ms. Turk for bringing light to this merger. Broadband in rural areas of Louisiana is very much needed.
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written by Matt82 , July 07, 2011 - 08:41 pm
How is that another nod? The PSC has not even finished its fact gathering process.

Of course Kim Allen is going to say everything is great....she is the AT&T-Louisiana spokeswoman. Heck, AT&T managers and above even get a larger bonus if they close before the end of the year. They will say what they can (lie) to get people like you to say the deal is golden.

Nothing will change except rate plan prices for everyone. Going UP!!!




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written by Leslie Turk , July 07, 2011 - 08:52 pm
Matt82, the Arizona public utility's action does not constitute a nod? There is also some sentiment that costs will come down as a result of the merger: http://online.wsj.com/article/...71632.html
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written by Peyton 99 , July 08, 2011 - 02:54 am
This is great news! The Louisiana Public Service Commission should do the right thing and let AT&T and T-Mobile move forward.
Thank you for being PRO Business!
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written by dawid , July 08, 2011 - 04:09 pm
If the merger happen america's wireless infrastructure will die. Att is the worst, the most limited, and te most expensive customer option. The prices will increase and service will be more limited. Just look at their current strategy. Att just wants money nothing ellse. Who needs 4g if they give me 2GB limit with other limitation such as movies only via wifi and other... so in the other hands the only advantage over 4G will have ATT. Customers will use their monthly limits qiuck and they will be force to pay for another GB. ATT is slowing down or even destroying us businesses development. This Margeer is another hit pointed to US economy. Huge mistake!!! This country is really going in wrong diection. Just the matter of time when China will take over world lidership. The US does not need more bilioners we need normal economy where all people can develop and create new businesses and ideas.
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written by Thomas Paluchniak , July 08, 2011 - 06:44 pm
Any consumer in this country should be strongly opposed to this deal. First, it creates a monopoly on the GSM network. Millions of people on T-Mobile who own expensive phones will have no options on where to take said devices. This is a real problem, since unlike T-Mobile, AT&T does not allow fully owned contract free iPhones to run without a data plan. Second, thousands of T-Mobile employees will lose their jobs. Third, stores will close adding to urban blight. Fourth, the government through the tax payer will subsidize the resulting firings through unemployment insurance. Fifth, the cost of plans will increase and be limited. I suffered through AT&T's take over of Cingular where AT&T axed Cingular's less expensive plans. Six, innovation will die because AT&T will yield enormous power against hardware makers. Had this deal been in place when Apple came out with its iPhone, it would have been dead in the water. Seventh, the deal only benefits AT&T. Nothing in this deal assures greater broadband adoption. T-Mobile and AT&T could currently enter into a sharing agreement if necessary.
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written by geocrunch , July 11, 2011 - 04:42 am
Sh*t - I can see how AT&T pays some f*ck-heads like Leslie Turk and other fake "comment writers" below a small cut of the $39B's to write some sh*ty articles like this one, so we, the public, may finally start listening to their brainwashing crap and maybe send some of our "votes" to the local governments, such as the one at Louisiana, and also to the FCC. I am glad there are some people here who're actually still paying attention to what's being said and point out to the untruthful facts that this articles are trying to hide so hard.
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written by geocrunch , July 11, 2011 - 04:51 am
I am surprised that AT&T hasn't already bought just about everyone in FCC to make this "deal" go through... Oh they probably did, but just making it look like there is an argument of some sort so "others" like the public and the Sprint, don't outrage too much about it.
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written by Matteo , July 13, 2011 - 08:27 pm
Markus H. hit the nail on the head. I have T-mobile and anytime there is a concert or big event here in Las Vegas, im surrounded by people with iphones who cant make a call because they are on at&t. I have full signal and yes im on Tmobile. they want this to improve their signal and steal customers and then raise prices. i dont care what speculations say, with limited competition only one thing happens, prices go up. see netflix right now and what they are doing. they have already lost about 40,000 customers by raising prices. they lst these customers in the first 12 hours of the price hike news.
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