AT&T Buying T-Mobile US – Thoughts
by ilene - March 21st, 2011 6:48 pm
Thoughts on AT&T’s proposal to buy T-Mobile – Karl Denninger and Robert Scoble, & Brett Arends
One bad company buying another: AT&T buys TMobile (Verizon forced this marriage!)
You all know I really despise AT&T, even though I continue paying them thousands of dollars per year for three cell phones. Since getting my Verizon iPhone I haven’t dropped a call and I can actually hear the other party. Steve Gillmor got one on Friday and, wow, what a difference. Not to mention that the world’s toughest dead zone: Devil’s Slide is non-existent for AT&T and TMobile, but works the entire way on Verizon for me.
TMobile is even worse. It doesn’t have enough coverage. My entire neighborhood, which includes some of the houses of the richest VCs, not to mention VPs from Apple, HP, and other places, has NO TMobile Coverage. This isn’t back waters of some flyover state. It’s 13 miles from the tech center of the world (at least until Beijing takes over later this decade).
CNBC just announced AT&T is buying TMobile’s US business for $39 billion. More details flowing in on Google News and even more over on Techmeme. That’s one way to get more bandwidth to try to serve iPhone users better before they all realize Verizon has a better network.
I think this COULD be a good thing, if they fill in some of the numerous dead zones and get us better service. I’m stuck with AT&T because I need to head to Europe every few months and AT&T’s iPhone is better there. Also because in other places AT&T does have better coverage, and its data is faster and also I can use data while talking, which really isn’t that big a deal for ME anymore (since I have two phones, I solved that problem).
Anyway, does one bad company buying another make a good one? I guess we’ll see.
Yes, I know I might get crap for calling these companies bad companies, but I’ve paid AT&T thousands of dollars over the last few years. I’ve earned that right.
Speaking of which, why didn’t they just spend that $39 billion making a better network? Oh, do I love capitalism sometimes.
This is a forced marriage due to Verizon finally getting the iPhone. If that hadn’t happened AT&T would have continued
Memo: Changes at CNBC Following Comcast Merger
by ilene - December 3rd, 2009 10:26 am
Memo: Changes at CNBC Following Comcast Merger
—–Original Message—–
From: CNBC Corporate Communications [mailto: all]
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:32 AM
To: All
Subject: Exciting Synergy Opportunities With Comcast
Greetings Gang,
By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard that our parent company’s flirtation with Comcast has moved past the necking phase and we’ve now agreed to go all the way. I wanted to reassure all CNBC staffers and on-air personalities that whatever changes may come will be minor and will be made with the sole intention of wringing out cost savings and synergies.
Here are a few preliminary ideas we’ve received from Jeff Zucker as well as Brian Roberts and our new family at Comcast Cable Systems:
- Air times for CNBC’s various programs and segments will no longer be exact. Comcast will now give viewers a 2 to 4 hour window in which to expect a show to come on.
- Some programs, such as Power Lunch, will have their broadcast studios relocated to Transmission Facility Room B in scenic Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Personnel will be transported to and from tapings weekdays via the Comcast corporate shuttle bus.
- All employees, including on-air talent, will be required to complete the mandatory six week Comcast training program which includes a master course on coaxial cable maintenence and set top box repair.
- Jim Cramer will be expressly prohibited from recommending or endorsing the following stocks during the Lightning Round: Time Warner Cable, Dish Networks, DirecTV and Verizon.
Again, these are just some ideas that are being kicked around by our new corporate partner. Please keep all complaints and comments to yourselves for now. They are valuing NBC as a whole at $37 billion, amazingly, so let’s not screw this up.
We appreciate your loyalty and hard work.
Regards,
Mark Hoffman
President, CNBC
thehoffmeister@nbcuniversal.com
*clearly a parody, laugh a little before its too late