AT&T Buys DirecTV

$48.5 billion. That's the massive amount of money that AT&T plunked down to swallow up DirecTV. 

"Customers will be able to get wireless, voice, data, TV and home security from the same company nationwide," says Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics. "It allows (AT&T) to grow the share of consumers' spending on telecom."

There's no guarantee the deal will go through even though the board of directors for both DirecTV and AT&T voted the merger through. The decision rests on the shoulders of regulators, but if approved DirecTV will operate as an AT&T subsidiary.

This isn't the first big cable deal of the year. Recently this year Comcast proposed to buy Time Warner for $45 billion, which would mean a merger of the country's two largest largest cable companies.

Just like a lot of people aren't happy about the Comcast/Time Warner deal, people aren't thrilled about AT&T wanting to buy out DirecTV.

"The industry needs more competition, not more mergers," said John Bergmayer, an attorney at consumer technology advocacy group Public Knowledge. "The burden is on AT&T and DirecTV to show otherwise."

Will rates increase? I can't answer that because I don't know, but I know it will be a top concern for DirecTV customers. I've talked with a lot of Time Warner customers who are not so happy about the pending merger because rumor has it rates will increase, so now it looks like this question will weight on the minds of virtually everyone in this area who has cable or satellite.