Cingular's Acquisition of AT&T Wireless Could Cost Consumers $5 Billion a Year

Well if it's still cheaper than evil Verizon and I'm getting even better than my already great coverage... charge me 10% more for all I care .

 

So everyone is willing to pay more for better service again?? I remember getting attacked by the Wireless Advisor Wolves a year ago on this forum when I said that. Oh well, life is a big circle.


Cingular will probably keep chipping away at alloted plan anytime minutes and start charging again for enhanced V-mail and other basic features. They've already done this. Got to make the money up again somewhere.

I see other carriers charging more for little things now that they never used to.

Plus, with the FCC making new rules, we will probably keep seeing regulatory, federal, state, mandatory, fees to "make up for this, and that."

With the exception of AT&T Wireless who seems to be giving away a free phone, free car, and free season pass to Mammoth Ski Resort with every activation, I don't see my carrier giving away the farm unless they really feel pressured by Cingular to do so. We will just have to wait and see who's strategy really works best. Sometimes doing nothing works just as well as doing something.

 

The Mereger between ATT and Cingular finaly gives verizon some REAL competition and a resaon to worry. To me, this is good. Besides, Sprint, Tmobile, and Nextel will have more incentive than ever to do right by the customer just to try and catch up.

 

My point eactly. The Big dogs veiw on life (Verizon) is about to change. They are about to go from being number one by a margin of 15 million to being number 2 by a margin on 8 million. I think this will be the best thing for the industry. I think prices may actaualy go down.

 

I don't think we will see any price increase's from this merger, at least for a long time being they don't want a bunch of customers going to other providers especially in the next few years. Also i found it interesting that they waited to give this study to the DOJ and not the FCC, I wounder who payed for this so called study.

 

I agree it will be interesting to see how long Cingular will stay #1 over Verizon, I think they will be aggressive on there plans & phones to keep the position.

 

Hopefully the next time our contract is up, we can see who has the cheapest service, with GOOD coverage nationwide, moderately priced phones, and EXTREMELY GOOD coverage where we need it the most...unless Sprint gives us a good retention plan, because as of right now, they have the best coverage where we need it the most...

 

I agree....we're already seeing Sprint, T-Mobile and Nextel improve their existing areas of coverage. I think the pros will outweigh the cons.

 

I visited the website of organization that performed the study. I started to read the study they did in its entirety but got fed up with all the chattyness of the document. The "abstract" pretty much says it all anyway.

One thing I noticed is that they used certain "models" and formula to make their conclusions. However, one thing they did NOT do was to use historical data on previous mergers. Though purely subjective, it seems to me that previous mergers have been good for the buying public. Now, its affects on investors is not something I have followed but that wasn't the initial discussion here anyway.

As far as price increases, I think those will happen as a matter of inflation anyway. Just look at gas prices, cable TV costs and other things. Really, wireless prices, compared to these other two, are a real bargain. Even compared to itself, I remember wireless prices just 2 decades ago and they were much more expensive. Now, with alacart, roll-over and other package deals, people really have little to complain about.

 

Well I'm just going to keep my grandfathered plan (which works very well for me) for a long time to come so no worries about price increases here.

 

I certainly wouldn't want to pay 10% more for better coverage. I don't need better coverage (and I'm sure many others don't either). Sprint already covers everywhere I need it to and anything more would be just a waste of money for me.