Are consumers winners or losers in AT&T's EchoStar deal?

First, UScellular fell. And now, so has EchoStar/Dish with the sale of key spectrum licenses to AT&T. Does that mean wireless competition in the U.S. is dead? Was it ever really alive? It really depends on who you ask. UScellular was the largest regional operator before selling its wireless assets—spectrum, retail stores, and customer roster—to T-Mobile. EchoStar’s Boost Mobile, meanwhile, was intended to become a fourth facilities-based operator capable of competing with the likes of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile in the wake of the latter’s Sprint acquisition. Though EchoStar did build out a network, its success as a wireless competitor is debatable, and the company is now selling its spectrum to AT&T. EchoStar said Boost will operate as a “hybrid MNO” using its own core network and AT&T’s cell sites. But where does this all leave the state of competition the market? Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at the Open Technology Institute, believes AT&T/EchoStar deal is a blow to consumer choice. Wave7 Research’s Jeff Moore similarly observed that the deal will effectively “freeze” the number of facilities-based operators in the country at three. Even so, he argued not much will change for consumers.