Thus far in the battle war mayhem debate regarding the AT&T and T-Mobile merger, the vocal third-parties who have come forth have opposed the event. Now however, we have a large and rather dominant group made up of some of the key presences in the mobile industry expressing their approval of the merger. In a page and half letter addressed to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a consortium made up of Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Qualcomm, RIM, Avaya, Brocade, and Oracle laid out their argument backing the merger. They explained that the merger would make the US globally competitive in the mobile and data space, and that it was a needed move to bring mobile broadband options to the entire country, that “an increasingly robust and efficient wireless network is part of a virtuous innovation cycle.” Strong words, but they don’t really speak to the needs of the consumer, who just happens to stand to lose the most with this deal. Beyond this, it’s always been said that competition breeds innovation. While I agree that our national network needs to be more “robust” and “efficient”, I don’t believe that creating a near duopoly for the sake of a temporary fix is the answer. What are your thoughts on the matter, intrepid reader? Let us know in the commnents!
[via engadget]