T-Mobile USA doesn't comply with its German parent company’s GDPR policies

Re:T-Mobile USA doesn't comply with its German parent compan... by sofixa on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @08:54AM (#32482144)

No, you're dealing with an oligopoly. Sometimes it's a "natural" one, where the characteristics of the segment make competition hard or impossible (e.g. infrastructure, utilities due to capital costs and physical limitations involved) - in that case government regulation is mandatory to enforce some sort of decent consumer protections (like forced interoperability/mobility, limit abusive contracts, etc.). Sometimes it's regulatory capture (where regulations are so heavy very few competitors can afford to be present). Sometimes it's just the market that consolidates (e.g. multiple entertainment markets like video games, movie studios) even though they shouldn't be allowed to this point.

Government corruption is rarely the main, or even among the main causes of oligopolies (in developed countries, YMMV elsewhere).

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Re:T-Mobile USA doesn't comply with its German parent compan... by LinuxBender on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @11:55AM (#32484556)

For what it's worth, I think you are both right. It is an oligopoly and it is heavily colluding with governments. When I was in the wireless industry I saw multiple facets of this. We could do literally anything as we were beset-of-friends with many of the three letter agencies. We had unlimited lobbyists and could kick any law down the road. One prime example would be the hands-free law that was going into effect in the late 90's. We kicked that can far down the road because the phone tech just wasn't ready for it. We were also able to silence what today are called security researchers. I was also required to give agencies unfettered and un-logged access into the mainframes PBX telco switches that routed calls and controlled the cell sites.

We also had very little competition due to written and unwritten agreements that allowed us to focus on specific regions.

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Re:T-Mobile USA doesn't comply with its German parent compan... by sneak on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @01:03PM (#32485677)

> Government corruption is rarely the main, or even among the main causes of oligopolies

I really think you're going to have to support this claim, because in my (admittedly US-centric) experience it is the only cause of them.

Sibling comment describing the US telco oligopoly talks about corrupt government behavior directly.

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Re:T-Mobile USA doesn't comply with its German parent compan... by pessimizer on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @09:31AM (#32482465)

What other thing do you think continuing lack of regulation or regulatory capture (which costs companies plenty to do) are the result of? That's what you're paying people for. That is the corruption.

You're saying that the flu is a result of sneezing.

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