AT&T-T-Mobile Deal Is Bad Idea, Says Inventor Of The Cell Phone

Tweet

Dr. Martin Cooper is a pretty smart guy. He worked for Motorola in the 1970’s, and is credited with being the inventor of the modern cell phone. In a candid interview with Network World, Cooper explained his take on the AT&T-T-Mobile acquisition. Here’s a hint – he’s not a fan of AT&T. He also described which phones he’s using today. The answer may surprise you!

In the interview with Network World’s Brad Reed, Cooper is candid about his feelings of AT&T. Back in the 1970s, Cooper explained how AT&T and their Bell Labs skunkworks laboratory had just developed the car phone, and Cooper felt that AT&T was trying to develop a “retrograde technology” with the carphone. He tells Network World:

And the reason that we built the first cell phone was not to change history but to stop AT&T from building a retrograde technology. For 100 years we were told by AT&T that the only way to communicate was to be wired to your wall and trapped behind your desk, and now they were going to try to trap you inside your car.

Cooper, when asked what he felt about the breakup of Ma Bell by the US Government, said that it was ultimately good for the telecommunications industry. Then, when asked about the pending AT&T-T-Mobile acquisition, Cooper explained that he was against it:

It would be a big mistake for the AT&T-T-Mobile merger to be approved. If you want to have a service that’s worldwide like GSM or a GSM derivative, you’ll only have one carrier that you could go to. There is no reason why T-Mobile can’t be successful on its own and the only real reason AT&T would want to own T-Mobile is to increase its exclusivity by owning more spectrum.

As for which phone he is currently using, Cooper explained that he changes his phone every two months to stay current. His grandson gets his old phones. He’s currently using an HTC Thunderbolt, but in the past he has used a Motorola Droid X and iPhone 4.