Comcast and Charter In Talks With Sprint To Offer Wireless Service (theverge.com) 42
According to The Wall Street Journal, Sprint's merger talks with T-Mobile are temporarily on hold while the carrier mulls over a number of potential deals with the United States' two biggest cable companies, Comcast and Charter. While Comcast is already using Verizon's wireless service under their own name, the company may want to use Sprint's network as well. Charter doesn't have a wireless phone offering yet, but the company's CEO indicated last year that it has every intention of launching one. The Verge reports: Such a deal would likely involve the two cable companies making an investment in Sprint, which the carrier would then use to build out its network, generally known to be the worst of the four major phone service providers. The Journal also reports that Comcast and Charter could make a bid to acquire Sprint outright, but it said the outcome was seen as less likely. Though they're usually an unlikely pairing, Comcast and Charter agreed in May to team up when making deals around wireless coverage for a full year. For the most part, both companies have been slowly losing TV subscribers year after year as customers shift over to online services. They see phone service as a new offering that could help to restore growth and lock in subscribers.
You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed ba (Score:3)
You must rent your cell phone and it's an mixed bag if you will get an iphone 5 or 6 or 7 all at the same price.
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So they offer "Up to iPhone 7"?
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it's comcast! do you want to add hbo for $17.99?
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Adding HBO on Comcast only costs $10 like pretty much every other cable company.
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Every time Sprint gets some major investment funding, the result is always shitty. Now here we have two shitty cable companies investing in Sprint...gee, I wonder how this will turn out.
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So two of the worst wired ISPs are offering wireless service from the worst mobile provider? Where do I sign up?!!!
Wherever you want! That's the beauty of all these mergers. Soon there will just be different brand names all under one umbrella corporation. Similar to car rentals. That way they can trick customers in to thinking there is choice, when really they just suck for different market segments.
And if you think this is monopolistic, think again. By carving up the marketplace, they will and won't compete at the same time! [dailykos.com]
Comcast wireless (Score:4, Insightful)
Now you can have the same level of suck, but on the go!
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That's Comcastic!
merge merge merge (Score:3)
What is with this near-obsessive "need" for all these TV, cable, ISP, phone, cell, and production companies to merge? We want choice, not "bundling." My wireless phone company has nothing to do with cable TV or my ISP. I really think the anti-trust authorities should step in and break up all these completed and prospective mergers. They are bad for consumers, bad for the economy, and bad for the country. It is not a free market when consumers are not free to make choices. I can see where it might be OK for T-Mobile and Sprint to join forces to compete with Verizon and AT&T, but that is as far as I would go.
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OTOH, one bad billing fuckup will screw up your phone, TV, ISP, home security, and wireless phone.
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Choice is exactly what they don't want you to have.
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They are merging because shareholders want them to keep the revenue growth steady at the very least if not increasing. Because they are very large companies already it's very hard for them to do this organically (getting new subscribers, having existing customers sign up for more services). When you are a $10M company it's easier to meet your 5% growth target than when you are a $100B company in a stagnant market. So the companies merge, create partnerships, and find other ways to get their growth boosted.
Can you hear me now? (Score:2)
Can you hear me now? No? Ah.. must be Sprint...
Worst cable bundled with worst phone (Score:2)
Tv (Score:1)