AT&T is the worst carrier in America. Again.

By Cory Doctorow at 12:44 pm Wednesday, Dec 7 • Comments • Share

Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom

Context (essays) With a Little Help (short stories) For the Win (YA novel) Makers (adult novel)

For the second year running, AT&T has taken top honors in the list of America's worst phone companies -- a hotly contested spot!

While AT&T's satisfaction score in 2011 wasn't as bad as its score from 2010, the Dallas-based cell phone provider, which recently discontinued its bid to acquire its better rival T-Mobile, still ranked at the bottom of the pack. Last year, AT&T was the only carrier for the Apple iPhone, but still managed to receive the lowest scores. The company issued a statement in response.

"We take this seriously and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience," it said. "Hard data from independent drive tests confirms AT&T has the nation's fastest mobile broadband network with our nearest competitor 20 percent slower on average nationwide and our largest competitor 60 percent slower on average nationwide. And, our dropped call rate is within 1/10 of a percent - the equivalent of just one call in a thousand - of the industry leader."

Verizon Wireless Trumps AT&T Again in Consumer Reports Survey (via /.)

(Image: $ at&t, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from zombieite's photostream)

AT&T merger leak: it's all about raising prices and reducing competition

By Cory Doctorow at 9:28 am Saturday, Aug 13 • Comments • Share

Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom

Context (essays) With a Little Help (short stories) For the Win (YA novel) Makers (adult novel)

An AT&T legal staffer inadvertently (and briefly) posted a damning internal document to the FCC's docket for the pending AT&T/T-Mobile merger. The document makes it clear that "AT&T is giving Deutsche Telekom $39 billion primarily to reduce market competition" and that the company's claims of bigger network buildouts and increased employment are utterly fictional.

Again, the reality appears to be that AT&T is giving Deutsche Telekom $39 billion primarily to reduce market competition. That price tag eliminates T-Mobile entirely -- and makes Sprint (and by proxy new LTE partner LightSquared and current partner Clearwire) more susceptible to failure in the face of 80% AT&T/Verizon market domination. How much do you think wireless broadband market dominance is worth to AT&T over the next decade? After all, AT&T will be first to tell you there's a wireless data "tsunami" coming, with AT&T and Verizon on the shore eagerly billing users up to $10 per gigabyte.

Regardless of the motivation behind rejecting 97% LTE deployment, the letter proves AT&T's claim they need T-Mobile to improve LTE coverage from 80-97% simply isn't true. That's a huge problem for AT&T, since nearly every politician and non-profit that has voiced support for the merger did so based largely on this buildout promise. It's also a problem when it comes to the DOJ review, since proof that AT&T could complete their LTE build for far less than the cost of this deal means the deal doesn't meet the DOJ's standard for merger-specific benefits.