Emerging Monopoly Alert!

[Nbadan]

Buy! Buy! Buy!!!!


February 19, 2007 -- Satellite radio operators Sirius and XM are expected to announce their long-awaited merger today, according to a source familiar with the deal.

The two sides were locked in negotiations over the weekend trying to hammer out a final agreement with an eye toward going public with the merger today in Washington, D.C., where XM is based, this source said.

Talks were still going on at press time and the deal could fall apart at any time. With antitrust issues of paramount importance, this source said lawyers for both companies were working overtime to fine-tune the language of the agreement and frame the discussion around the deal itself and not regulatory concerns.

XM confirmed the merger today on its site (http://xmradio.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=1423)

satellite Radio is gonna be B I G . Get in now if you can!

[ChumpDumper]

If this goes through, antitrust laws are truly a farce.

[Nbadan]

If this goes through, antitrust laws are truly a farce.

I agree, but that didn't stop the telcos from reconfiguring back into a virtual monopoly. Industry will find a way.

[101A]

What percentage of the population has satellite radio receivers?

Wouldn't the thousands of "free" over the air channels be direct competition?

A technological monopoly != A market monopoly

[101A]

I agree, but that didn't stop the telcos from reconfiguring back into a virtual monopoly. Industry will find a way.

And yet, I don't pay any of the Bells anything in any of my accounts, personal or business - and my telco costs are lower than they've ever been. Some monopoly.

Compare that to postage rates and service over the past 30 years; THAT'S how you run a monopoly!!!

[ChumpDumper]

That's probably their reasoning.

I imagine in automobile internets aren't far behind.

Now that I think about it, satellite radio is doomed to failure no matter what.

[101A]

I imagine in automobile internets aren't far behind.



I damn near drive off the road every time I talk to my wife on my cell. Discussing politics with Boutons while TYPING?? Scary, dangerous shit.

[Nbadan]

That's probably their reasoning.

I imagine in automobile internets aren't far behind.

Now that I think about it, satellite radio is doomed to failure no matter what.

Car internet would be expensive (think of the cable costs alone :lol ) . The smart, and less costly thing to do is to make cities, large wide-area network using existing phone towers, but there would still bea need for satellite radio out of ranges of these LANs.

[ChumpDumper]

Car internet would be expensivePaying Howard Stern $100 million a year is expensive.

[Nbadan]

Paying Howard Stern $100 million a year is expensive.

If city-wide LANs were gonna happen anytime soon they would have already have happened. There are powerful lobbyist who would lose a lot of work if something people would pay premium to do all of the sudden became very cost-effective.

[ChumpDumper]

If city-wide LANs were gonna happen anytime soon they would have already have happened.You are thinking small.

[Nbadan]

You are thinking small.

what was invented first the shared land-line or the cell phone?

[ChumpDumper]

What already exists now?

[Nbadan]

Cell phones and PDAs

[ChumpDumper]

Bingo.

[Nbadan]

but cell phone = land lines of 1800....

[sabar]

That's pretty silly.
There's only 2 companies that provide them in the US and Canada and they wanna merge. Textbook monopoly though I guess regular radio is still competition.

Car internet isn't happening any time soon. Communication through satellite or microwaves is too slow for two way internet communcation. That's why satellite radio works -- you don't send out signals, you only recieve them. With car internet, you would obviously need to send signals, which requires time in the case of electromagnetic waves or your own satellite dish on your car pointed the right way in the case of satellite broadband.

City-wide wireless networks are the most realistic and those have yet to get off the ground.

Stratospheric airships would remove the latency problem and provide fast speed, but again, it would be one way communication without a dish mounted to your car.

We're stuck with cell phone connections for the time being.

[DarkReign]

Oakland County, Michigan will be the first entirely free wireless county in the USA (also one of the richest). It was passed last year, will be funded by taxpayers, and will be completely free internet access to everyone and anyone living there or just passing thru.

[xrayzebra]

Didn't our state legs pass some kinda law the last session to
prevent cities from having wifi networks? But I read Houston
is having Sprint build one there, but it will cost the citizen's or
some of them. The poor (?) wont have to pay. Wonder how
they can afford a computer? Now if you live close to a library in
San Antonio you may be able to hitchhike on their new wifi
network.