
AndrewSmither
Today as I was reading the release of Apple’s unlocked iPhone, I stumbled upon the news of a merger in the works. AT&T’s official announcement took place back in April. It is currently under review by the FCC. The interesting factor is that the states are weighing in. They are taking the time to research how it will impact their state (i.e. economy, cell phone tower placement). Officially only the FCC can approve or deny this merger, however, the states can influence the decision. If it goes through, I personally find it a bit ironic as T-mobile had adds portraying why they were better than AT&T, especially against the iPhone(before it became available to Verizon). Seeing the cell phone portion of AT&T company expand doesn’t surprise me. I remember when Cingular bought out AT&T and merged with them, deciding to stick with the name AT&T. I was a Cingular customer at the time and preferred the logo and the company, however I experienced no negative changes from it.
If the merger goes through, some jobs will most likely be lost. The other thing to consider is the T-mobile stores, if they are close to an existing AT&T store, I doubt they would keep them all open. Not only could jobs be lost, but it could create vacancies in malls and strip malls. I’m impartial to this merger as I don’t know all the facts of it’s negative impacts. How about you? Do you have a reason why this shouldn’t go through, or are you all for it? If you called in to your state government today to put in your say, what would it be?