The state of New York has indicated that it will investigate AT&T’s proposed take over of T-Mobile USA for anti-competitive effects, including possible increases in mobile broadband costs for New York residents and businesses, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
New York is the first state that has committed itself to probing the $39 billion deal, which was announced on March 20 but is expected to take 12 months to close. At their current sizes, the combined telecom companies would have 130 million subscribers, dwarfing the next-biggest operator, Verizon Wireless, with 93 million. In a press release on Tuesday, the attorney general’s office raised the possibility of Verizon responding with an acquisition of Sprint Nextel, which has about 58 million subscribers.
“The proposed merger could start a process of consolidation that would lead to two firms -AT&T and Verizon – controlling nearly 80% of wireless subscribers nationwide,” Schneiderman stated.
Schneiderman said mobile service has changed from a luxury to a basic necessity and T-Mobile currently is a low-cost option for many New York residents. People in some areas, including Albany, Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse, already have limited wireless choices, he said.
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This is shaping up to be quite the season for the tablet wars as Research In Motion’s long-awaited device, the BlackBerry PlayBook, is set to go on sale in the United States and Canada on April 19 at a base price of $499.
RIM said on Tuesday it plans to sell the PlayBook through retailers and wireless carriers including Best Buy, AT&T, Verizon, Radioshack, Sears Canada and Wal-Mart. ReadMore….
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In the phone wars between the two big carriers, it looks like AT&T wins this round. The iPhone 4 on AT&T’s network downloaded data twice as fast, on average, as the iPhone on Verizon Wireless, according to thousands of recent field tests in five U.S. cities performed by Metrico Wireless, an independent mobile device performance evaluation firm.
Metrico’s tests looked at several other variables, however, and found the average Web page load time was nearly the same on iPhone 4 on both networks, a Metrico official said.
Also, when the iPhone 4 was in a moving vehicle, the AT&T model successfully finished about 10% more download session than Verizon’s. But when the iPhones were stationary, the Verizon iPhone had a 10% better success rate in uploading data than the AT&T iPhone, Metrico said.
Metrico did not reveal actual time measurements for any of its results, including the data downloads and uploads or Web page loading times, prior to publication of its full study.
Some of Metrico’s findings are at odds with several smaller spot reports conducted last month that found Verizon’s iPhone performed better on several criteria. But a Metrico official noted that those quick studies were based on only a handful of test samples, often in a single city, including San Francisco, where AT&T’s coverage for the iPhone has been consistently criticized.
AT&T admitted more than a year ago that it had network problems in downtown San Francisco and Manhattan and had begun infrastructure updates. Read More….
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Verizon Wireless will join AT&T in implementing data caps in the very near future, probably in mid-summer, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said at an investor’s conference Tuesday.
The exact timing for the move to a tiered-pricing structure has not been announced, however. AT&T squashed unlimited data plans for new customers last year.
Verizon has been selling the iPhone 4 since Feb. 10 with a $30 unlimited plan, which also applies to other smartphones it sells that are on the Verizon CDMA/EV-DO network.
Shammo said some of the details of the data caps and tiered pricing will come when Verizon launches the HTCThunderbolt on LTE soon. Thunderbolt will have a 4.3-in. screen and run Android, Verizon said in January. Read More….
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In what could be construed as attempt to curb potential subscriber loss due to Verizon’s impending iPhone, AT&T rolled out a mobile calling plan Wednesday that allows unlimited free voice calls to any wireless network in the U.S.
However, to be eligible for the new plan, Unlimited Mobile to Any Mobile, customers must still enroll in one of five qualifying mobile voice plans that charge for mobile calls to or from a landline phone.
Calling plans range from $39.99 a month to $109.99 a month, in addition to an unlimited messaging plan for $20 a month per individual or $30 a month per family…. Read More…..
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