Drew FitzGerald

The face-off, between the Justice Department and AT&T over the company’s $85 billion agreement to buy media giant Time Warner, has broad ramifications for media, technology and other industries as well as for the government’s powers to deter large-scale corporate consolidation.

Cheap wireless plans might be harder to find in 2018. The two most aggressive US wireless carriers, Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc,  are signaling they will scale back discounting this year after a failed attempt to combine their businesses. Sprint, the No. 4 carrier by subscribers, said that it would only chase new customers it considers profitable. No.

Early signs suggest the legal fight over AT&T’s $85 billion Time Warner takeover will focus heavily on the small screen, drawing much of its evidence from the companies’ video rivals. Those competitors argue the telecom company will use Time Warner’s entertainment assets against them.

Netflix helped spark the debate over net neutrality three years ago by raising concerns about how its internet traffic was being handled. But as the US government prepares to repeal the rules, the video giant has been less vocal on a key issue. That is because its concerns over so-called interconnections—the places where web traffic is passed from one company to the other—have largely been addressed by commercial deals.

AT&T’s bid to buy Time Warner is blurring some of the ideological lines that usually split free-market conservatives from liberal skeptics of big business. On the left, some Democratic US senators who questioned the deal earlier have avoided addressing the issue since the Justice Department sued to stop the $85 billion combination. State attorneys general who joined a similar campaign against Comcast’s 2011 takeover of NBCUniversal have likewise sat out the latest government effort to thwart corporate concentration, at least for now.

During months of merger talks with T-Mobole, Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son sought a way to merge the two wireless rivals without really having to hand over the keys. There was discussion over inserting a provision to buy the combined company back after two years. The companies explored giving the Japanese billionaire the right to increase his stake over time. He was offered the role of co-chairman.

Apparently, the Justice Department is considering a lawsuit challenging AT&T's planned acquisition of Time Warner if the government and companies can’t agree on terms that would satisfy antitrust concerns. The department’s antitrust division is preparing for litigation in case it decides to sue to block the deal. Simultaneously, the department and the companies are discussing possible settlement terms that would lead to the deal winning government approval with conditions attached.

Verizon Communications will buy Straight Path Communications for about $3.1 billion, after beating rival AT&T in an unusually intense bidding war for the wireless-spectrum holder.

Hackers used an army of hijacked security cameras and video recorders to launch several massive internet attacks last week, prompting fresh concern about the vulnerability of millions of “smart” devices in homes and businesses connected to the internet.

Network engineers are buzzing as the Internet outgrows some of its gear.

While a precise count is elusive, many technicians are reporting that the total number of world-wide Internet routes is near or already past half a million, usually abbreviated 512K. Older network routers from Cisco Systems and other makers can't hold any more unless they are tweaked.

The problem also draws attention to a real, if arcane, issue with the Internet's plumbing: the shrinking number of addresses available under the most popular routing system. That system, called IPv4, can handle only a few billion addresses. But there are already nearly 13 billion devices hooked up to the Internet, and the number is quickly growing, Cisco said.

Version 6, or IPv6, can hold many orders of magnitude more addresses but has been slow to catch on.