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Feds set to launch investigation into telco abuse of market power
Sweetheart handset deals and heavy-handed control of broadband networks may have landed Big Telecom-specifically Verizon and AT&T-in the sights of the Department of Justice, reports The Wall Street Journal. A WSJ story today says the Obama administration may be looking to use the Sherman Antitrust Act to regain control of an industry that had free reign during the Bush years.
While AT&T's exclusive deal with Apple for the iPhone may be the headline, the deeper intent of any probe might be to determine if AT&T and Verizon have too much control over the infrastructure in an ever-consolidating telecom market.
The Journal reports the two companies claim 60 percent of the nation's wireless customers, have 90 million landlines between them and control a large portion of the Internet backbone. Their assets make them formidable and, critics posit, give them an unfair advantage in the market that they use abusively. Thus, the antitrust chatter.
Even so, some observers feel proving any telecom companies participate in anti-competitive actions will be a tough row to hoe.
"It would be a very hard case to make," Donald Russell, a one-time DOJ antitrust attorney familiar with the telecom industry, told the Journal. "You don't have any firm that's in a dominant position. Usually, you need to show a firm has real market power."
For more:
- See this Wall Street Journal article
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Comments
Posted by WilliamC | July 8, 2009 - 6:29pm
P.s.s...Don't forget LTE...It never stop with these two conglomerates!!!
Posted by WilliamC | July 8, 2009 - 6:25pm
What we as consumers want is for the DOJ to break the stranglehold that AT&T and Verizon has on handset exclusivity. Each week and month these two behemoths announce a new phone making it extremely difficult for other carriers to get them. Why are they getting this special treatment??? Is it their deep pockets or lobbyists in Washington or their power??? You the listening audience tell me. The love affair with these two needs to end......This is about the American Telecommunications sytem in America, not just them..Who said that they are the only ones that can offer phone, cell and tv service and do it better than the competition??? Look at the prize the Fcc gave them - they let them get bigger, they let them buy out other cellular phone companies, they allowed them to start their own television video service, they now have push-to-talk. Now there is talk of AT&T possibly buying Directv!!! When is this shopping spree going to end??? Did your bill go down or billing practices get better because Verizon has 84 million customers??? I doubt it!!! The phoney baloney continues in the billing department and gets worse the bigger they get...........
Posted by Anonymous | July 8, 2009 - 7:24am
What ridiculous stooges these DOJ politicos are.
This is transparently a bit of legalistic saber rattling to get carriers to pony up political contributions.
There is no 'right' to an iphone and no one is being prevented from getting one. There are a variety of smart phone competitors that will do an adequate job.
And FierceTelcom- AT&T is not getting a 'sweetheart deal' on the iphone from Apple.
Posted by Anonymous | July 8, 2009 - 1:38am
Whatever... anyone can compete today against AT&T, life today was very different than in the 1980s. If you don't like AT&T, they are many competitors that offer Voice over IP for an affordable price. Slamming and Cramming is a no no at AT&T, review your bill and if you don't like it you have many options.
Posted by Anonymous | July 7, 2009 - 11:33pm
I witness customers getting overbilled, crammed, slammed, you name it, and getting charged so much on their monthly bills. And those are just the customers that review their bills, just think of those that have paperless, autopay, bills, they never know. AT&T, in the past few years have stepped up this process. I guess they think they'll never get caught. Us employees, have to turn a blind eye, we know the exec's are making all this money - nobody will ever do anything about it to make it right. Shame on them, they are just too big for the britches, now.
Posted by Anonymous | July 7, 2009 - 2:08pm
This much is obvious ...they could dig a little deeper.
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