@jbtaylor on tech

The Boston Globe has just published an editorial critical of GLAAD, the NAACP and the NEA for weighing in at the FCC on a AT&T's bid to takeover T-Mobile. The Globe pointed out that all three groups received donations from AT&T.

The Globe writes of GLAAD, the NAACP and the NEA in part:

"Shilling for AT&T makes them seem more like paid lobbyists than clarions of justice; it carries more than a whiff of hackery."

"Many nonprofits seek corporate sponsorship, especially in today’s financial climate, but their fund-raising operations shouldn’t drive their advocacy. And if AT&T or any other corporation wants to support civil-rights groups or a teachers’ union, it should do so out of a commitment to those causes, not as a down payment on future favors."

I can't make this up.

Today the Louisiana Ballooning Foundation endorsed AT&T's bid to takeover T-Mobile in a letter to the FCC. They would like 4G in Baton Rouge and they also would like the new jobs AT&T has promised with this proposed transaction.

Of course, what to do you see when you go to the Foundation's home page? An AT&T logo of course. AT&T sponsors the Foundation's annual Pennington Balloon Championship.

I wonder if the Foundation has position on the debt ceiling or the war in Iraq.

In his Sunday column this week, the Washington Post's Steve Pearlstein has come to an interesting conclusion as he weighs AT&T's bid to takeover T-Mobile.

He writes that the government has two choices:

It could stick with the competitive, lightly-regulated model and try to make it work by blocking a merger of the No. 2 and No. 4 competitors that will leave 75 percent of the wireless market in the hands of AT&T and Verizon.

Or it could acknowledge that, because of powerful economies of scale and limits on the amount of wireless spectrum that is available, the “telephone” market is a natural oligopoly that can support only a handful of players and limited competition — and, by implication, requires much stronger government regulation.

At end of his column, which is really a must-read, he has a stern warning for regulators reviewing the proposed transaction:

At different times, we’ve had success with both models, but surely the worst outcome would be the unregulated oligopoly that AT&T and Verizon would have us embrace.

If Pearlstein is right, and the government is considering approving the transaction, but imposing much stronger regulation than the wireless industry currently operates under, before this is all over, we may see Verizon decide to weigh in and formally ask the FCC and the Department of Justice block the transaction. 

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn) at a recent Senate hearing on AT&T's bid to takeover T-Mobile said it best:

"I believe it's going to raise prices for American families and may cost thousands of jobs."

The Senator goes on to question the CEOs from AT&T, T-Mobile, Cellular South and Sprint in the hearing. It's worth a view.

The Senator seems to be completely in step with his constituents on this. As of this writing, Over 900 Minnesotans from across the state have weighed in on the proposed T-Mobile takeover, almost everyone doing so is opposed to AT&T.