3 ms·
What is this obvious need?
by beefman 15y ago
What is this obvious need?
- aaronbrethorst 15y agoAs the article said: “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the U.S. said in its filing. That is an obvious need. There's too little real competition in the wireless space as it is. We don't need to be down to a single nationwide GSM provider.
- danberger 15y agoThere are other budget options in the wireless space, including Cricket and Boost
- aaronbrethorst 15y agoCricket's apparently smaller than US Cellular and MetroPCS, neither of whom I even knew existed anymore. Boost is an MVNO. I'm not sure if they really count in this discussion since they don't own their own network. They're really at the mercy of whomever they lease their capacity from. I feel like this is kind of like making a case against the DOJ/Microsoft lawsuit in the late 90s by saying, 'it's ok if Apple exits the computer market, because there are still competitors out there like Amiga and Compaq.'
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoThey aren't big enough to have a measurable influence on the overall market.
- digikata 15y agoBoost is a brand-name under Sprint. So is Virgin Mobile in the US, and a couple of other mini-brands as far as I know...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- drzaiusapelord 15y agoThey just resell Sprint and Verizon service with shittier phones. A reseller isn't really competition. Spring and Verizon can shut them down whenever they please.
- beefman 15y agoThere can be, in principle, very little "real competition" in the wireless space. See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2946463 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2946463 Edit: I'm curious why this comment was downvoted. I'm new here and am trying to understand the policy.
- corin_ 15y agoErr, you're not new here, not sure why you said that.
- beefman 15y agoWhen I joined, downvoting was not used as much, and wasn't used to show disagreement (and this was considered good reddiquette for a long time). The community here has changed a lot though, and I sincerely do feel new and want to learn how to best contribute.
- beefman 15y agon1ce
- potatolicious 15y agoThis isn't reddit - if you like being snarky and condescending you can roll yourself back towards that side of the fence.
- beefman 15y agoI wasn't being snarky or condescending. Nor am I a redditor who has come over here lately.
- drivebyacct2 15y agoPhew, good thing we're also not so petty or immature as to compare all of reddit to a person, or a person to all of reddit.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- beefman 15y agoDid you downvote my reply, and if so, may I ask why?
- aaronbrethorst 15y agoNo, I did not.
- beefman 15y agoThanks for answering. I'm confused then. Do we downvote comments we disagree with, or only comments that are unthoughtful, offtopic, etc?
- aaronbrethorst 15y agoTry the search box at the bottom with terms like 'downvote.' these meta discussions come up fairly often.
- noarchy 15y agoMaking posts to inquire about why one got downvoted seem to throw fuel on the fire, resulting in yet more downvotes. At least, this is what I've observed time and time again here.
- potatolicious 15y agoYour current posts are being downvoted because you're complaining about downvoting. Your original post, i.e. "What is this obvious need?" is (IMHO correctly) perceived as a leading question. You want to make a point, but you're asking a disingenuous question instead. You're leading the other poster so you can tear him a new one - as evidenced by the fact that you seem to have a lot of stuff to say about this topic. As a rule I (and much of HN, apparently) dislike questions that aren't genuine. Feigned ignorance as an argumentative crutch is pretty lame. If you have a point, make it, this isn't some juvenile youth parliament or model UN, there are no victories here.
- beefman 15y ago
- cookiecaper 15y agoThe obvious need in my mind is that if we get down to a single national GSM provider, a lot of people are going to be stuck. The only alternative for T-Mo customers that don't want to use AT&T would be to sell their phone and get a new CDMA phone. The concern for me is mainly over a complete monopoly on national GSM; a duopoly is bad enough.