AT&T TMobile chiefs grilled on merger plan face off against rivals CSPAN.org showing live video broadcast of and Sprint CEOs testifying before U.S. Senate about deal CEO 'This is unfixable' chief AT&T/TMobile would block phone tablet deals BGR Interview Sprint’s VP Product Development Fared Adib Neppl Says the `Wildcard' in Review Is Process Killing Software Industry Gack Sports Here’s A Tarp Guy Losing Battle With The At Coors Field Verizon ATandT Others Sign for PLAN Federal Alert Texts Google working with partners Android fragmentation issue Dale Jr. apologizes to 88 team pit road gaffe Buying Skype combined probably be cheaper than $48 billion Microsoft was going spend buy Yahoo Ballmer Fans You Can Trust Us Harvick Busch Fined $25K Put On

Senate lawmakers grilled the chief executives of AT&T and T-Mobile on Wednesday on their proposed $39 million merger, questioning whether the deal would lead to less competition and higher prices for consumers. And among the most forceful arguing that it would was the chief executive of another major wireless provider, Dan Hesse of Sprint Nextel. He told lawmakers that if the merger of his competitors was approved, his firm probably wouldn't survive as a stand-alone company. "It would fundamentally put us in a situation where this is a duopoly (industry) and it puts us in position to be acquired," Hesse said in the antitrust subcommittee hearing. Read full article >> (05-11) 09:32 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Top executives from AT&T and T-Mobile USA are facing off against top officials from Sprint Nextel and Cellular South on Capitol Hill as lawmakers consider whether AT&T's proposed $... Fireworks before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights today, as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and consumer groups duel over AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile. Sen. Herb Kohl is currently grilling AT&T chief Randall Stephenson over the company's contention that T-Mobile is not one of its primary competitors. Congress doesn't have a formal role in approving or blocking this deal (that responsibility falls to the FCC and Justice Department), but I imagine the regulators will be paying attention to what these executives have to say today. ------------------------ **Follow me on Twitter!** The federal government famously smashed up AT&T in a landmark antitrust action that completely revamped the telecom market. Almost 30 years later, is AT&T once again poised to grow so big it eclipses all rivals? Sprint chief Dan Hesse during his statements at the Senate hearing on the AT&T T-Mobile merger singled out device deals as a major reason to block the merger. Referring to Verizon and a post-merger AT&T as the "twin Bells," he warned that their overwhelming clout would "discourage" putting smartphones on tablets on smaller carriers. Hardware makers would want to reach the maximum audience and almost invariably skip Sprint.... We recently had a chance to speak with Sprint's Vice President of Product Development, Fared Adib, about Sprint's upcoming devices, product strategy, and a whole lot more. Interested in Sprint's thoughts on unlimited versus capped or throttled data? Wondering about Sprint's plans for product differentiation in 2011 and beyond? Curious to know if Sprint will offer RIM's new BlackBerry Bold 9930? Hit the break for our full in-depth interview with one of the industry's driving forces of innovation. BGR Interview is a series of interviews and conversations with executives, influencers, tastemakers and innovators, covering the mobile and consumer electronics industries. First up, what phone is in your pocket? I think that's a great question to kick it off! [Laughter] Haha, OK. That's a good one! May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gregory Neppl, a partner at Foley & Lardner, discusses today's Senate hearing on the AT&T Inc.'s bid for T-Mobile USA. Neppl speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg) Read full article >> blackbearnh writes "We all know by now that Test Driven Development is a best practice. And so is having 100% of your code reviewed. And 70% unit test coverage. And keeping your CCN complexity numbers below 20. And doing pre- sprint grooming of stories. And a hundred other industry 'best practices' that in isolation seem like a great idea. But at the end of the day, how much time does it leave for developers to be innovative and creative? A piece on O'Reilly Radar argues that excessive process in software development is sucking the life out of passionate developers, all in the name of making sure that 'good code' gets written. 'The underlying feedback loop making this progressively worse is that passionate programmers write great code, but process kills passion. Disaffected programmers write poor code, and poor code makes management add more process in an attempt to "make" their programmers write good code. That just makes morale worse, and so on.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot. If there is a tarp guy handbook, and there really should be, here are the guidelines that should be written in it. 1. You must sprint at all time 2. When rolling or unrolling the tarp, make sure you have a good grip 3. Never find yourself under the tarp. This fella breaks at least two of those three guidelines. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have all agreed to support PLAN, a service that will push out federal and local location-based alerts in the event of an emergency. - The same day that the collection of consumer location data was called into question by a Senate panel, FCC officials and executives from the nations top wireless carriers unveiled a new program that will enable federal agencies to alert citizens via text messages of impending dangers. Federal C... During Google I/O today, the company announced that it's working with its partners – including AT&T, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless — on getting new Android updates to users faster and on curtailing Android fragmentation. As part of the same effort, if your hardware supports it, Google and its partners will guarantee that your phone gets the latest Android iteration for at least 18 months after the device hits the market. That should mean that end users won't have to sit around for months, or years, to find out that the hottest version of Android will never be available for their devices. Google hasn't clarified if this begins now with Android 2.3 (we doubt it), Dale Earnhardt Jr. called a team meeting following Saturday night's Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway and apologized for his pit road mistake that cost the team a top 10 finish -- and possibly a win. Noodling some more on what Microsoft could do with Skype, I think a purchase of Sprint is not totally out of the question for the giant from Redmond. Consider this: 1. Microsoft in 2008 was willing to spend $47.5 billion to buy Yahoo. While that deal fell through when Yahoo got greedy (Microsoft was willing to go to $33 per share, Yahoo wanted $37, and the stock is now trading around $18), Microsoft is clearly willing to put big money on the table for the right deal. Sprint's market cap today is about $16 billion, compared to $24.5 billion for Yahoo. Even if Microsoft paid a 100 percent premium for Sprint, it would only cost about $32 billion. Throw in Skype for $8.5 billion, and that's still a $7 billion discount to the Yahoo price tag. 2. Windows Phone 7 has not been a big success. While the software is decent, and has some advantages over iOS (Adobe Flash support, eventually) and Android (Netflix streaming), that hasn't been enough to push the sales needle. Part of the problem is that there aren't any cutting-edge WP7 devices. For example, many carriers now have 4G phones, whether ... SAN FRANCISCO -- Trust us. We're not going to screw up Skype. That was the message Microsoft delivered Tuesday, hours after formally announcing that it was buying the internet telephony pioneer for a staggering $8.5 billion -- staggering because it's more than the Redmond giant has ever paid for anything, and because Skype doesn't exactly print [...] NASCAR drivers Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick were each fined $25,000 and placed on probation for the next four Sprint Cup races following their postrace altercation at Saturday's Southern 500. Kevin Harvick has been placed on four weeks probation and fined $25,000 for his pit road confrontation with Kyle Busch following Saturday night's Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway. Here's Microsoft's brief explanation of how it will use its new Internet calling platform: > Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. The Windows Phone bit is the most intriguing. Hopefully if Skype is integrated into Windows Phone 7 devices, Microsoft will have the clout to force carriers to stop offering voice plans AND data plans. After all, there's no reason voice can't simply be data. That's exactly what Skype does, after all. The carriers probably aren't thrilled about seeing lucrative voice plans go away. After all, voice usage is dropping, which means the cost of providing this mandatory service is declining. But if none of the carriers are willing to accommodate data-only smartphones with Skype, Microsoft could get really aggressive and buy, say, Sprint. Or make a counteroffer to AT&T's $39 billion offer to buy T-Mobile. I doubt Microsoft wants to get into the wireless service business. But if Skype just becomes an add-on for a traditional cellphone voice-and-data plan, it's hard to see why anyone would want to use it. ------------------------ **Follow me ... Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital w…
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