THINKS A LACK OF COMPETITION IS BAD
POSTED BY DAN YOUNG
On the 20th of March, AT&T announced the acquisition of T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 Billion. Once the deal closes, the United States will only have three national carriers (for now) creating an environment with a dearth of competition.
Why should we care? Simple: you are going to be relying more and more upon your mobile devices and mobile infrastructure in the next ten years. Without a thriving competitive environment, what you will be able to do with your mobile devices will be limited by the few carriers remaining. They can charge more for bandwidth or restrict it altogether. They can allow for certain types of apps to run on their networks, excluding others. Carriers will make policies and be able to change them at will, effecting everyone else within the mobile ecosystem. The potential for capriciousness can have a stifling effect on innovation within this ecosystem.
AT&T and Verizon--Sprint will probably be purchased by Verizon in the not too distant future--will hold all the cards. "Net Neutrality," a policy governing landlines and wire-based networks, may be circumvented in the mobile space by the two giants. By having a monopolistic-type of control over the networks, carriers may be able to stall or even derail all of the great things mobile technology can provide. We should all be wary and vigilant about what happens next.
