Oh no, T-Mobile!

Reports keep surfacing that various suitors are preparing to make bids to buy T-Mobile.

An acquisition is probably bad news for me. T-Mobile’s long status as a fourth-tier outsider has led it to make a lot of decisions that are pretty great for customers.

For example, back in the day it was the only telecom to publicly denounce the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. In 2013, it was the only telecom to state for the record that it does not sell customer data or call logs to government agencies (the other companies had no comment). They have transparent and non-confusing pricing. And now they offer free international roaming and data, which is insanely great for travelers.

If Deutsche Telekom sells their shares to SoftBank, my only hope is that the continued foreign ownership keeps the management interesting and forestalls the adoption of the same creepy, cozy relationship that the other telecoms maintain with the government.