AT&T Wants to Give You an 80s Makeover

[Commentary] If you were around in the 80s, you might be experiencing a horrible flashback right about now because AT&T, that monopoly that once lorded over your rotary phone, has resurfaced with a scheme to rule your mobile phone as well.

If regulators allow AT&T's takeover of T-Mobile, we would be left with a wireless market that is far more consolidated than the markets for oil, banking, automobiles and air travel. What does that mean? To achieve comparable consolidation in the oil industry, ExxonMobil would have to merge with BP, Shell, Chevron-Texaco and Citgo. And to make the comparison even more acute, these oil giants would not only be merged as ExxonMobil, but you would be required to buy only ExxonMobil gas for the next two years, or pay a steep termination fee. It means that a service that is becoming as critical to Americans as affordable, reliable water and electricity will be under the thumb of two companies that place their narrow profit incentive above the interests of everyone else.