If you’ve been keeping up with the fight to stop media consolidation, you know what we’re worried about: the prospect of just a few enormous corporations controlling the flow of information in America.
That’s why the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile is a really, really bad idea.
It would create a wireless juggernaut so powerful that only Verizon could hope to compete (Sprint would likely wither away or get eaten up by one of the new Big Two). These two monoliths could raise prices or reduce the quality of service with no concern that their customers will go somewhere else — because there won’t be anywhere else for them to go. This is bad for consumers, obviously — but it’s also bad for an industry so critical to our economy.
Meanwhile, the merger would be a bad blow for net neutrality, allowing the Big Two unprecedented control over what content we can access on wireless networks — and at what speed.
And if that weren’t enough, AT&T estimates that it will save $3 billion a year in “operational savings” and “cost synergies,” which sounds to me like layoffs, and lots of them — maybe thousands or even tens of thousands of lost jobs.
Let’s see — higher prices, worse service, less innovation, reduced competition, AND lost jobs? Sounds like a really, really bad idea to me.
I’m going to fight this merger, and I hope you’re ready to help. Stay tuned.
Thanks,
Al
PS: Our efforts are not funded by corporations and massive unlimited contributions, we rely on small individual donations from supporters like you. Can you pitch in $5 or $10 to help us keep growing our grassroots team?
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