Hasta La Gadget!

It almost goes without saying that Sprint has probably been opposed to AT&T’s recent proposed purchase of rival cell phone carrier T-Mobile.

Now it’s official.

On Monday afternoon, Sprint issued a press release publicly condemning the potential merger between the two carriers, asking the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. In the release, the company claims a takeover of this proportion “would reverse nearly three decades of actions by the U.S. government and the courts that modernized and opened U.S. communications markets to competition.”

The argument cites an approval as very bad news for Sprint, which would rank in last place in U.S. wireless providers behind Verizon and AT&T if the deal went through:

AT&T and Verizon are already by far the largest wireless providers. If approved, the proposed acquisition would create a combined company that would be almost three times the size of Sprint in terms of wireless revenue and would entrench AT&T’s and Verizon’s duopoly control over the wireless market. The wireless industry moving forward would be dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically integrated companies with unprecedented control over the U.S. wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs, such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete.

But the statement reads as an appeal almost as much to the general public as it does to the government agencies monitoring the case. The company claims the “Ma Bell duopoly” created by the potential takeover will harm consumers “at a time when the country can least afford it.”

AT&T’s statement of intent, issued on March 20, defends the deal in a more attractive appeal to rural cellular subscriber, claiming the extension of coverage to “95% of the U.S. population,” or an “additional 46.5 million Americans, including [those] in rural, smaller communities.”

The deal is still being reviewed by the DoJ and the FCC.

See Also:

• AT&T’s Purchase of T-Mobile Will Face Opposition, Thankfully …
• AT&T to Buy T-Mobile, Becomes No. 1 U.S. Wireless Company …
• With AT&T/T-Mobile, Wireless Net Neutrality Should Be Back on the …
• Ingenio to Keep its NSFW Holdings in AT&T Deal?
• Verizon ‘Not Interested’ in Sprint: CEO

Though it won’t be the first Verizon LTE device to share its white-hot connection over WiFi (that honor goes to the recently-launched Thunderbolt), Samsung’s SCH-LC11 — announced back at CES — is shaping up to be the network’s first dedicated hotspot to hit retail. We’ve just been dropped the carrier’s internal equipment guide showing a launch date in all channels (stores, telesales, and online) this coming Thursday, March 31st; pricing is an open question, but carriers tend to price these modems pretty aggressively on contract since they know they’re going to eat you alive with the data plan for the next two years. Of course, in this case, we’re more than willing to get eaten alive if it means we’ve got a 20Mbps WiFi connection in our pocket at all times.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Verizon’s Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot launches March 31st originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“Early 2011” is rapidly passing us by — as, for that matter, is March — but we still wouldn’t rule out a Verizon Wireless launch of the HTC Trophy smartphone. You see, the carrier’s seemingly still advertising the Windows Phone 7 device inside Microsoft itself, in a likely attempt to gather preorders before the device hits shelves. We can’t say for sure when the phone will actually arrive, of course, but if we were the gambling type, we’d toss some horseshoes in the general direction of April Fools’ and pray they find a mark.

Verizon renews HTC Trophy offer for Microsoft employees originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 05:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Verizon says 4G LTE network will cover ‘at least’ 147 US cities by the end of 2011

Verizon says 4G LTE network will cover ‘at least’ 147 US cities by the end of 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Thunderbolt 4G is the first honest-to-goodness 4G phone on Verizon, the first LTE smartphone you can buy in the US. In other words, it’s the fastest phone—connection-wise—that you can buy right now. And holy crap, is it fast. More »