The scene opened finding me standing next to a stream running the length of a wide, green valley. On the other side was a great army headed by this warrior with humongous muscles. No, it wasn't Goliath. It was Conan the Barbarian of the two colored eyes. One eye was green and the other red. Upon looking closer I could see the green eye's pupil was shaped like a dollar sign ($), and the red pupil pulsed like an over-heated, nuclear reactor.
Looking behind me to see what resources were available to help protect me from this power-starved creature, I was nearly trampled as people rushed forward holding cell phones in front of themselves and prostrating at Conan's feet.
With no other choice I tossed my cell phone (underhand) at Conan and walked away to take up residency in a little, one-room hut on a deserted island on another planet in a solar system far, far away.
Okay. It was strange, but dreams tend to be that way because of what brought this premonition to the screen on the back of my eye lids. I wish it could be attributed to the cabbage on pumpernickel sandwich, but it was the result of reading about the intended merger of AT&T with T-Mobile.
In a time, long, long ago, there came into being a great power that grew to enormous proportions. This power was affectionately called, "Mother Bell" or "Ma Bell" for short. This mother came to be the communications service for the country, but then came an incredible revolution and mother was hacked to pieces. But like any good creature, the pieces morphed into different communications devices bringing on the advent of the cell phone. What a tremendous boon to the people, but while the people became infatuated with this new device and what it could do, no one noticed how all the pieces of mother were slowly reforming until we had four - Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Now AT&T and T-Mobile want to merge, and we have allowed ourselves to be so powerless to only watch as poor, little Sprint will be eaten alive, leaving us with only two communications providers.
As our family wanted to remain in contact with family, friends, and business, we looked at what was available. Cell phones were the future. Sprint was comic relief so we went with Verizon. It was good, at first, until the service faltered. No matter where I was located, or where the person I wanted to talk to was located, there was an echo. Have you ever tried to carry on a conversation while listening to what you just said being repeated as the other party is responding? We complained - repeatedly -, and upgraded - repeatedly -, to no avail. To add insult to injury, we found ourselves out of "area of service" more often than not and into the high-priced world of "roaming." We opted out of the contract several months early.
That left us only one alternative, T-Mobile because AT&T had even less service area than Verizon. (Sprint was still doing comic relief in the foyer). We have been happy - broke - but happy. However, I am now feeling Conan's clammy fingers wrapping around my throat. Bigger is not necessarily better. It only leads to more power in the hands of a few, and with that, one throws competition to the insatiable corporate hounds. And, with no competition, the corporate generals will feast at the trough of publicly-financed wealth, satisfying their red eye with power and their green eye with our money. This merger will leave little choice except to genuflect at their feet, or find a little, one-room hut on a deserted island on another planet in a solar system far, far away. (Or perhaps in central Canada - same difference.)
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