Customers sue AT&T to block T-Mobile acquisition

bgr.com — A handful of AT&T's customers are now fighting against its planned acquisition of T-Mobile. Law firm Bursor & Fisher filed lawsuits against AT&T on behalf of 11 AT&T subscribers in an effort to block the merger. Jul 23, 2011 View in Crawl 4

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Customers sue AT&T to block T-Mobile acquisition

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novenator Jul 24, 2011

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Fight the merger! http://www.fightthemerger.com/

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eraptor Jul 25, 2011

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Absolutely. It's time to end the merger madness in the U.S. The country needs jobs, not job destruction mergers and anti-competitive business combinations.

The country didn't break up Ma Bell just to see it reconstitute itself.

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novenator Jul 25, 2011

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System

What do you think about nationalizing the telecoms? It might cut down on duplicate systems installations, and maybe rural areas would *finally* get some frakkin' cable wired (since for-profit companies refuse to do it because of the cost).

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eraptor Jul 25, 2011

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It makes sense. After all, our communications infrastructure has become the equivalent of our highway system. Imagine the uproar most Americans would lodge if they had to pay for access to our highway system at every turn.

Beyond that, the national security implications are mind-numbing since countries like China routinely use our communications network to engage in military and industrial espionage without the need for a physical presence. It's a sure bet that neither Verizon nor AT&T have the national security measures in place to prevent it, especially since the cost would impact their "profits". This is the problem with privatizing critical national infrastructure.

I recall reading a news report where the major telecoms were attempting to prevent local municipalities from installing high speed broadband access in rural areas. What was particularly egregious was that these companies refused to make the investment. They simply didn't want any competition for broadband service, regardless of the source.