DOJ files injunction against AT&T and T-Mobile Merger

Update: The full PDF text of the DOJ lawsuit can be found here.

Update 2: Sprint has just released their own statement courtesy of senior vice president of government affairs Vonya B. McCann:

The DOJ today delivered a decisive victory for consumers, competition and our country. By filing suit to block AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile, the DOJ has put consumers’ interests first. Sprint applauds the DOJ for conducting a careful and thorough review and for reaching a just decision – one which will ensure that consumers continue to reap the benefits of a competitive U.S. wireless industry. Contrary to AT&T’s assertions, today’s action will preserve American jobs, strengthen the American economy, and encourage innovation.

The DOJ today delivered a decisive victory for consumers, competition and our country. By filing suit to block AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile, the DOJ has put consumers’ interests first. Sprint applauds the DOJ for conducting a careful and thorough review and for reaching a just decision – one which will ensure that consumers continue to reap the benefits of a competitive U.S. wireless industry. Contrary to AT&T’s assertions, today’s action will preserve American jobs, strengthen the American economy, and encourage innovation.

The tech blog world is in a frenzy today with the news of the Department of Justice filing an injunction against theproposed takeover of T-Mobile by AT&T. AT&T hasn’t wasted a moment though already releasing a statement promising to vigorously fight the DOJ action and also take over the world. Wayne Watts, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel issued the following statement:

“We are surprised and disappointed by today’s action, particularly since we have met repeatedly with the Department of Justice and there was no indication from the DOJ that this action was being contemplated.

We plan to ask for an expedited hearing so the enormous benefits of this merger can be fully reviewed. The DOJ has the burden of proving alleged anti-competitive affects and we intend to vigorously contest this matter in court.

At the end of the day, we believe facts will guide any final decision and the facts are clear. This merger will:

· Help solve our nation’s spectrum exhaust situation and improve wireless service for millions.

· Allow AT&T to expand 4G LTE mobile broadband to another 55 million Americans, or 97% of the population;

· Result in billions of additional investment and tens of thousands of jobs, at a time when our nation needs them most.

We remain confident that this merger is in the best interest of consumers and our country, and the facts will prevail in court.“

T-Mobile outages post earthquake

In case you are just catching the news a 5.9 magnitude earthquake outside of Washington D.C. and up along the east coast is affecting T-Mobile service. The above tweet shows that T-Mobile is aware of the difficulty as are all major operators experiencing trouble and customers are advised to use SMS or e-mail in the meantime. Hope everyone is safe!

@tmobile

Has T-Mobile Customer Service Taken A Turn For The Worse?

After T-Mobile’s loss of the JD Power Customer Care award and a continuously growing stream of emails regarding unusually long wait times we begin to wonder just what exactly is going on with T-Mobile’s award winning customer service department. Well someone’s ears were ringing as two sources answered our question with a confidential look at what could be to blame. We’ve received two pieces of information that give us at least some form of an answer as to why T-Mobile’s customer service seems to have dropped from the top spot.

The first is related to the above image as T-Mobile has removed the ability to bypass the automated calling systempass Go and collect $200 instead requiring the customer to input a phone number to properly route the person to the correct place. T-Mobile says it’s taking this step in order to properly route customers and better answer of questions. I say its just another step in ensuring longer wait times by placing customers into a longer queue.

The second is a little more detailed and something we have to be a little more selective on our word choices as we were asked only to post certain things. The short version of the story is that in the past 12 months T-Mobile call centers have seen, in some cases a drastic reduction in staffing, outsourcing and as of late a drop in morale as almost every center believes they are closing when the AT&T deal finalizes. While call volume remains steady, reductions in staffing have lead to very high hold times and a whole lot of customer unhappiness. Our inbox speaks to that. Some call centers have seen reductions in staffing by the hundreds since early this year with some centers looking to further cut staffing as 2011 continues. In fact, some employees responsible for training new employees in the United States call centers are now being sent overseas to handle increases in staffing abroad.

So is T-Mobile looking to downsize ahead of the merger or are they looking to cut costs with outsourced service centers? Either way there is a clear indication that something is going on and there is something behind the recent spat of disappointed loyal T-Mobile customer complaints about lengthy hold times. We’ve begun to really hear a large number of complaints from our readers about call wait times including one reader, Anthony who has tried over the last 5 days just to get someone on the phone and has waited at least 45 minutes each time being unable to do so. Anthony has called from his T-Mobile phone and a desk phone without including his own number.

We’ve been unable to confirm all of the specifics contained within our ninja info but we have no reason to suspect it is incorrect based on the information we are hearing from everyday T-Mobile subscribers who are finding more and more calls being handled by overseas agents. For the moment we are growing increasingly concerned about the direction T-Mobile is headed as we begin the countdown to the AT&T takeover decision. Slowly but surely it looks like the T-Mobile we know and love is becoming the AT&T Death Star, even if the deal doesn’t go through we wonder what a post AT&T takeover talk T-Mobile would look like.

Via: http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/has-t-mobile-customer-service-taken-a-turn-for-the-worse/

T-Mobile G2 Gets Gingerbread Update

Greeeeeeat news T-Mobile G2 owners as today is a magical day for you. That’s right I’m talking about a Gingerbread OTA update that begins today and will rollout over the next few weeks to all G2 owners. This has been a great week for T-Mobile Android owners who are finally seeing a long promised Gingerbread update arrive. Let’s just get right to the meat of this and tell you what’s in store:

• Android 2.3.3
• Google Books added
• Notification color scheme is now black
• New battery indicator, phone and web icons
• Color-coded network icon and signal indicator
• Pressing the power key on a call disables the proximity sensor
• Wi-Fi improvements
• New SMS and email notification improvements
• Improvements to sending MMS from the Gallery

If you aren’t willing to wait for the OTA to come to you, you can try and go to it by using the following steps:

1. Press the MENU key
2. Tap SETTINGS
3. Tap ABOUT PHONE
4. Tap SYSTEM UPDATES

Note this line from the support document which I’m emphasizing in bold capital letters so people are sure to read it:

IMPORTANT: DO NOT CALL T-MOBILE TO RECEIVE THE UPDATE BEFORE SEPTEMBER 1. THE TIMELINE FOR RECEIVING THE OTA CANNOT BE EXPEDITED. T-MOBILE CANNOT MANUALLY PUSH THE SOFTWARE TO CUSTOMERS WHO ASK TO RECEIVE IT.

Hope you all got that last part!

T-Mobile

Five Myths About The T-Mobile/AT&T Takeover Courtesy Consumer Advocate Free Press

While the government remains caught between two very separate sides of the AT&T takeover of T-Mobile, consumer advocate group Free Press is continuing its approach of debunking AT&T’s argument that the takeover is necessary. In fact they’ve compiled a list of 5 myths tackling a number of AT&T’s core arguments that attempt to show that AT&T would be able or is already able to achieve the stated goals it has said it needs T-Mobile’s spectrum to accomplish. Let’s just dive right in with a big thank you to Josh Levy from Free Press for compiling these myths and sending it our way:

(Updated)T-Mobile Suffering New York City Outage?

New York: We are aware of an outage in some areas. Our engineers are on the scene and will restore service as soon as possible.

about 13 hours ago via CoTweetReplyRetweetFavorite

@TMobile T-Mobile USA

Updated: The trouble seems to be over as we just received a statement from T-Mobile: “T-Mobile customers in New York City experienced a temporary service disruption Thursday evening. The disruption was due to an internal power outage at one of our network switching facilities. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Thanks to A LOT of your emails, Tweets and this message from @tmobile on Twitter we are getting word of a major outage in the New York City area. Some New Jersey residents are also unable to make/receive calls. We’ve pinged T-Mobile for a better understanding and we’ll up this post as we know more!

Groups Seek Public Hearings From FCC Regarding AT&T/T-Mobile Takeover

By David, Managing Editor June 29, 2011 12:20 pm EST 69 Comments

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In a letter to the FCC a number of consumer activist and watchdog groups requested that public hearings be held across the country to “hear from the people who could be most affected by the merger.” Groups including Consumers Union and Public Knowledge (we love them) sent the letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski expressing the deal as “a matter of great public concern.” Other groups who lent support to the letter include Free Press, Media Access Project, Future of Music Coalition, National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Open Technology Initiative of the New America Foundation.

There is precedent for hearings of this kind as last year saw a public forum held in Chicago to examine the Comcast Purchase of NBC.

Would you attend a public hearing? I would…with cowbell.

Boston.com