What AT&T and T-Mobile Merger Means for Innovation

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission must have given an informal blessing to the proposed AT&T|T-Mobile deal. There is a better than good chance that AT&T will make some nominal concessions in order to get the final approval from the FCC and the Department of Justice. In fact, AT&T executives have been rumored to be boasting about the nod-and-wink arrangement with FCC. It’s a shame! The impact of this deal getting approval will, more likely than not, have a huge impact on wireless prices. Why? Because on a national level, we now have two near-monopolies in control of our wireless destiny. Verizon and AT&T control roughly 70 percent of the total 296.3 million mobile phone subscribers in the US. According to comScore, Verizon has about 31.3 percent of the total market, and after this deal; AT&T will have 38.8 percent. That is 70 percent of the U.S. market. The third largest player is Sprint, with 11.9 percent of the total market.