Choice is a good thing, which is one of many reasons AT&T's plan to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion is such a bad idea.
The announcement comes as cell phone industry folks are buzzing around Orlando at the annual CTIA Wireless trade show. Most people at the show want to see the latest innovations in what has become a fertile area of technological development in terms of computer chips, software, and the country's wireless infrastructure.
But if AT&T does swallow up T-Mobile, creating the largest carrier in the U.S. and reducing the total number of sizable firms to three, it could cost consumers dearly -- and end up putting the brakes on innovation, taking us one step closer to the good-ol', bad-ol' days of Ma Bell.
One example, Sprint just announced an important integration with Google Voice that would let people use one number for mobile, home, and office -- a potentially game changing move in the telecommunications space that a giant like Verizon or AT&T would be unlikely to make.
Granted, we're not likely to see the return of big beige telephones, but having fewer carriers in the U.S. will certainly slow the introduction of new features. If it were up to the companies that make smartphones, there would be new models with new features every week.
