经济学人下载:美国移动通讯业-联姻大胆,反响不佳

An annual report on the state of America’s wireless industry published last year by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which along with the Department of Justice must approve AT&T’s bid, shows that regulators were already concerned about the state of competition in mobile telephony before this week’s news. Having previously affirmed, year after year, that the industry was “effectively competitive”, it declined to do so, though it made no specific recommendations on how to improve matters.

AT&T的竞购须得联邦通信委员会（FCC）与美国司法部核准才可进行。而去年，FCC发布了一份《美国无线通讯产业状况年度报告》，表明本周联姻消息爆出前，监管机构已对移动电话产业竞争状况忧心忡忡。此前，FCC年复一年都证实该产业存在“有效竞争”，而今却不肯这么说，尽管它对如何改进问题也无确切建议。

Wrapped in the flag假爱国真谋私

All this explains why AT&T has been doing its best to drape its deal in the Stars and Stripes. Among other things, it argues that T-Mobile’s subscribers will be able to benefit from its investment in a new, fourth-generation (4G) high-speed wireless broadband network, which will further the Obama administration’s goal of creating a connected population. (Deutsche Telekom was supposedly unwilling to make a similar investment in its infrastructure.) AT&T also trumpets the fact that its deal would transform T-Mobile from a foreign-owned outfit into an American one.

上述这一切说明了，AT&T为何一直在千方百计让这笔其实为了它自个的交易，也看似对美国有利。方式包括，它表示正在部署一种新的4G高速无线宽带网，将会促使奥巴马政府打造互联人群的目标更进一步，而T-Mobile的订户亦会从中受益。而据信，Deutsche Telekom并不愿进行同样的基础设施投资。AT&T还大肆鼓吹一个事实，那就是这笔交易可能会让T-Mobile从外企变为美企。

But nationalistic considerations should not be allowed to obscure the underlying impact that the proposed deal would have on consumers. Indeed, America’s politicians and regulators would do well to look at other countries’ experience before reaching a decision on AT&T’s bid.

不过，所谓爱国的理由，不应当拿来掩盖交易提案可能对用户造成的潜在冲击。其实，美国的政客及监管机构在决定AT&T的竞购前，应当借鉴他国的经验。

Canada provides a cautionary tale. There, three big companies, TELUS, Bell Mobility and Rogers Communications, were together allowed to gain control of almost 95% of the wireless market. Amid complaints about high call rates (among the rich world’s priciest) and a lack of innovation, the government used a spectrum auction in 2008 to create a raft of new players. But these have largely struggled against the industry’s behemoths.

加拿大的故事可资警醒。该国三大巨头——TELUS, Bell Mobility及Rogers Communications，获准联手掌控了加国95%的无线通讯市场。加拿大话费高昂，全球最贵，且缺乏创新，民众对此抱怨连连，对此，2008年，加政府利用频谱拍卖方式来产生新玩家。不过这些企业应对该国垄断巨头竞争，大多要苦苦挣扎。

British regulators are taking steps to avoid a similar fate. On March 22nd the country’s telecoms regulator said it would auction a chunk of radio spectrum next year for 4G services. And it said it wanted to manage the auction so as to ensure the country will have at least four national mobile-phone operators capable of providing consumers with higher-quality wireless data services.

英国监管机构正采取措施避免重蹈覆辙。3月22日，该国通讯监管机构称，明年可能拍卖大量无线电频谱用于4G服务，且称要监管此次拍卖，以确保该国至少有四家全国性移动电话运营商，能为用户提供高质量无线数据服务。

Thanks to AT&T’s move this week, American regulators will now have to decide how best to defend the interests of consumers there. Mobile-phone users will be hoping that they dial C for choice rather than D for duopoly.

幸亏AT&T本周行动了，美国监管机构现在必须决定，如何最大程度捍卫美国用户利益。移动电话用户希望拨“C”自己选择，而非拨“D”，让无线通讯市场两家独大。

注1：An audacious merger with a poor reception
audacious merger 与poor reception都语带双关。
audacious merger的merger表面指AT&T针对T-Mobile的bid，又呼应AT&T and T-Mobile are getting married这句，俏皮地将其比喻为联姻。

而audacious则指390亿美元的惊人出价，同时指此次并购faces significant hurdles，并且 has sparked a good deal of controversy。
poor reception一方面指AT&T的并购交易引发各方质疑，不受欢迎，一方面又呼应the patchy quality of AT&T’s mobile-phone network in America这句，暗指AT&T的移动电话网络信号接收不良。