Posted: 10/21/2011 6:03:50 PM EDT
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You may think it is great being the greatest tax collector for the government outside of the IRS to the point that you are regarded as "too big to fail". And you may think it is robinhoodish and altruistic to engage in massive reallocation of resources and use my payments to issue free cell phones and 240 minutes per month to people who pay nothing for the service and phone. But, guess what...I am done with you. This is the last time I am paying 21.3% in taxes and fees on a phone and internet bill.
Alpha Mike Foxtrot |
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Quoted:
This is why we can't have our own money  Because we want to keep it and not "spread it around?" I don't even look at my bill from Verizon to see how much is this part or that part cost, cause it'll just piss me off and I need a phone. I just need the final amount, if it doesn't change from month to month, good enough. |
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Quoted:
Are other providers not collecting the same fees, taxes, etc? Not busting your balls... I'm genuinely curious. ETA: I'm a dork. I meant genuinely, not generally Yes, but no one does it like ATT, as borne out in the congressional record. Well, there is Verizon, Sprint, and a few others. If ATT gets away with the $39 Bn merger with T-Mobile they will be far and away No.1 in the world in the telecommunications business. They hit a snag with Big Zero's DoJ, so they may wait it out to see what kind of congress and exec. they can buy for the 2012 elections. from www.informit.com: AT&T will attack the DOJ through the political process. AT&T is one of the largest donors to politicians in the country. It's safe to predict that some of those politicians will attack the DOJ's actions, mirroring AT&T's claims that the merger will create jobs and promote investment in infrastructure. We expect calls for investigation of the DOJ, congressional hearings, and even legislation that would either deprive the DOJ of the power to move forward on the case or that would remove funding for any effort to prosecute the case by the government.
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Antitrust cases take years—sometimes even decades—to be resolved. (The last one, filed in 1974, ended in 1984 with the breakup of AT&T.) AT&T makes plans for the very long term, knowing that it can outlast most opponents. It can also hope for a new administration to take office in 2013, with a new attorney general who has different standards for antitrust violations. In the meantime, AT&T has effectively neutralized T-Mobile as a competitor, especially since T-Mobile's current owner, Deutsche Telekom AG, has indicated that it doesn't plan to make any more investments in T-Mobile. Some people say that we're already down to three nationwide wireless carriers, not four. In effect, AT&T enjoys many of the benefits of the merger—including a reduced number of competitors—without actually having to pay billions for the acquisition. While we believe that a settlement between AT&T and the DOJ is possible, (rumors have the two organizations already in dialogue at the time of this writing), we think it more likely that the case will fester in the courts at least until next November's elections. After that, what happens depends on the preferences of the president and/or the attorney general |