AT&T wants to merge with T-Mobile. A DallasNews.com article from March cites AT&T at 34.1 percent of the market share. Combining with T-Mobile at 12.1 percent means AT&T dominates Verizon, 36 percent, and the entire market.
The wireless industry is concentrated. Reducing the number of companies could weaken competition, meaning fewer options and higher prices. Joining AT&T and T-Mobile likely will cut jobs, too.
In an article from the Washington Post, AT&T claims that the merger allows AT&T to spread its wireless 4G service to 95 percent of Americans faster than any of the companies could separately.
However, T-Mobile previously provided users with some of the lowest rates in the industry. The FCC worries that removing T-Mobile might make its consumers face higher prices, though they benefit from AT&T's electronics, like the iPhone.
To best benefit consumers, AT&T and T-Mobile should not merge. Capitalism plays its best card when competition runs high because competition encourages innovation and lowers prices. Allowing this merger means risking competition.
AT&T promises the expansion of a 4G network after the merger, but I believe that this breakthrough will happen regardless. I believe that the existing competition between AT&T and Verizon is substantial enough to spread the 4G, so why change? For AT&T to win the market, it's going to have to find another way. No merger means low rates, jobs kept and increased, or leveled, competition.
Katie McFarren
Carson City
