Loyalty to T-Mobile Spiked After Merger Announcement

Washington, DC, Aug. 31, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AUGUST 31, 2011 - A
lot of organizations endorsed AT&T's proposal to acquire and merge with
rival T-Mobile. Even a group of 10 state attorneys general backed the
deal. But consumers, the people who actually use cell phones and pay
the bills, have never been all that enthusiastic, a ConsumerAffairs.com
analysis of millions of consumer comments has found.



Most of the consumer comments directed to ConsumerAffairs.com took a
decidedly negative view of the proposed merger, which has now been
challenged by the U.S. Justice Department.



"Less competition is not the American way," said a poster named Dave.
"This could raise cell phone rates for everyone, not just T-Mobile
users," another poster, Daniel, said. "Less competition means higher
prices, it's basic economics. Let's band together and stop this,
everyone speak out."



Another poster, Craig, chimed in with: "AT&T + T-Mobile = better
reception? Oh, that's a good one."Using computerized sentiment
analysis, ConsumerAffairs.com tabulated about 1.5 million consumer
postings on social media sites during the last year and found consumer
sentiment about AT&T roughly evenly divided.In March, when the proposed
merger was announced, consumers made about 10,000 negative comments
about AT&T and about 11,000 positive ones.



Perhaps more telling are the sentiments expressed by about 2.3 million
consumers about T-Mobile during the same period of time.During March,
about 20,000 consumers expressed positive sentiments about T-Mobile,
compared to 7,800 negatives.



"Love T-Mobile! There is no better cell phone," said one of about
150,000 Facebook posters commenting on T-Mobile in March. 'Not sure I'm
thrilled about AT&T's interest in T-Mobile. Definitely prefer
T-Mobile," said another.



AT&T has claimed the merger would enable it to more quickly deploy its
4G high-speed network to rural areas and other under-served parts of
the country. While it may have made some headway with regulators and
politicians, the sentiment analysis indicates it still has its work cut
out for it in garnering support from consumers.