AT&T to acquire T-Mobile USA

[Danny4G]

Use this thread to post your reasons why. If you are activist oriented use this thread to organize.

[Danny4G]

There are two sides to every story. Share your thoughts and rationalities here why an AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile USA is actually a good thing.

[MasonDoctorJT]

Use this thread to post your reasons why. If you are activist oriented use this thread to organize.

I am not happy. I don't blame T-Mobile USA, I blame DT. They give us reason for hope by saying they are not looking to sell on March 2, then sell on March 20?! This is only bad for everyone. And if T-Mobile subs are divested it's even worse! I was looking forward to what T-Mobile had to offer. They are the only company to offer UMA, Unless At&t is going to offer this feature the merger should be blocked for stifling this technology as T-mobile is the only nationwide operator to offer it. I really can't see any upside for customers on any level. Coverage? come on, There networks aren't really that different except for areas that we already roam anyway. It's just a bad idea to let it go through as it will be setting a precedent that monopolies are allowed as long as they whine about resources enough.

[terryjohnson16]

I am not too fond of AT&T. I had them for a few months for the iphone 3G, and their network sucks. Glad I never left T-Mobile.

Some AT&T reps seem stuck up at times, because they had the iPhone exclusively, and that they have more coverage than T-Mobile.

Too bad MetroPCS never went the GSM route. They would be a good carrier to move to, if they had GSM. Maybe they would be the ones to get the divested T-Mobile customers.

Us long time T-Mobile customers can see clear through AT&T's agenda. They don't care about us customers. They just want the network equipment for their own gain. They will just raise the prices up and force us to upgrade, so they can recoup the costs. I hope that if it gets blocked, the FCC, DoJ, and FTC forces AT&T to open up rural roaming to T-Mobile in all locations, where AT&T has coverage but T-Mobile doesn't.

[Scottish Skyedance]

I think we are betrayed by DT by many lies recently.
AT&T is very stingy on internet, period.
I ported 3rd line to Virgin Mobile Saturday and using OV (since I have OT, so I know what it is) and it works fine.
I rooted the phone and installed Android Tether just in case I may need it.
There's NO WAY I do business with AT&T as they're not reliable.

[josue68684]

Hey guys, I think it would be a good idea to contact your state senators. Let them know how you think, perhaps they can be a major impact once its time for the FCC to approve or deny the merger. If anyone has a outline of a letter ill be more than happy to send it to help support my HOFO community.

Does anyone possibly have a outline?

[Kies]

On one hand, T-Mobile has YET to upgrade most of the towers in the SW area of Las Vegas to 3G (and all over the valley, but the SW area is completely in the dark for 3G really) and AT&T does have 3G here.. but the connectivity is atrocious. I'm talking about waiting minutes for a page to start loading. Getting a speedtest.net result was absolutely taxing and I had 3-4 bars of 1900 3G.

[carpetshark]

Whether or not the merger goes through, all of the companies need someone to ride herd on them.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/A...S-Scams-113383

If there's a buck to be made anywhere in this deal - dollars to doughnuts someone (not necessarily the carriers) will try to make money from it. And things will be so chaotic with billing, that it will probably be a while before a scam is caught.

Everyone will probably get phones locked down due to others naivety or stupidity.

[Danny4G]

I'm okay with the buyout as long as there are strict concessions made that benefit the consumer and incoming T-Mobile customers.

AT&T needs to know that all eyes are watching them and every move they make hence forth will be scrutinized should they get draconian with service/device limits including low capped data plans and crippled smartphones.

I don't share the "sky is falling," attitude because I stand to gain a ton of HSPA coverage out here in the desert from my home all the way to Vegas whereas right now most of the region is E-GPRS except for the cities. I also know that LTE trials should start in our area this summer so faster lower frequency data is coming.

I hope they open up a full roaming agreement pre-acquisition and for T-Mobile to continue to sell more phones capable of 850/1900 MHz UMTS.

I plan on re-upping my personal and business contracts with T-Mobile at the 11th hour to lock in our rates at least for another 2 years post buyout and hope that AT&T had enough pressure put upon them to honor them even longer. I'm also going to work with my B2B rep to make sure my business accounts are loaded with goodies and perks before anything becomes official. They already told me they are game to assist in any way they can.

[GSMinCT]

I'm an AT&T sub, and this is fantastic. Because of the places I frequent, T-Mobile and Sprint aren't on my options list for service, so throwing the almost deadlocked duopoly out of balance is HUGE. I am also very excited about all the additional spectrum and coverage.

Over the past few years, this is the one that has made sense to me all along, SprinxTel-Mobile would have been a disaster, as they would have been running four brands on five networks running on four different bands, the whole thing would have fallen apart. AT&T and T-Mobile are a perfect fit, other than the AWS 3G issue, but even then newer phones have NAM 3G, and the customers with AWS devices will be able to replace their devices, or keep the devices with 100% functionality on AT&T's EDGE network.

T-Mobile's dense urban network and AT&T's wide lowband coverage will come together to make the most insane network out there, focused on HSPA+ for the mainstream, with GSM/EDGE and LTE service serving their respective target markets.

AT&T subs have a lot to gain, but T-Mobile subs have a lot more to gain, since T-Mobile right now is rather lacking in coverage, while AT&T is second only to Verizon.

This had to happen eventually. The fact of the matter is, each country can only have two or three world-class 4G networks. AT&T&T and Verizon will battle it out in the mainstream, while USCC, Sprint, and MetroPCS will battle it out in their respective market, with Sprint as the most innovative and low-cost carrier.

[jet1000]

I am yet to find any good thing about the acquisition.

So why post in this thread? Go post in the angry thread.

Of course this is great news for T-Mobile customers. T-Mobile is losing customers while other companies are gaining.

T-Mobile was always getting second rate devices.

T-Mobile had no way to get to LTE. They didn't have the spectrum and they didn't have the cash to buy it or build it out.

Without this merger T-Mobile will just keep declining. It's funny how people are wanting to fight this. If the merger doesn't happen, the customers that fought it will just start complaining about why T-Mobile doesn't have LTE and why they're having to raise their prices and why they can't expand coverage, blah, blah, blah.

Most people don't understand that large LTE networks can't be developed the same way that little GSM networks could. It may come down to just two LTE networks and lots of MVNOs and more government regulation.

But 4 nationwide LTE networks are never going to happen. There's not enough resources to go around. This merger recognizes that.

So I say, fight the merger if you want. Maybe you'll even defeat it. But most of you won't stick with T-Mobile for very long after the defeat.

[Danny4G]

I'll post "my," pros for the joining of the networks here and I'll post the negatives in that other thread:

A) Much broader coverage for me. I live in a community surrounded by miles and miles of rural desert and mountains. AT&T currently has coverage in all those areas where my T-Mobile phone shows a SOS symbol.

B) AT&T's HSPA + network built out practically all over Southern California rural highways not limited by city limits.

C) Enterprise (ordering, procurement) tool for my 2 large B2B accounts with SLA's on orders placed through Premier. Currently T-Mobile does not even offer a tool like this.

D) Access to Apple's full line up of mobile hardware. Personally I'm a huge Android fan but my employees are constantly asking for these and our company is looking to expand Apple distribution more and more. Right now I've been ordering them Verizon service. Once (if) this deal closes I'll move their lines back over.

E) Better co-marketing and VAR opportunities for my business with AT&T including full support for vendor and manufacturer commission opportunities.

F) M2M calling community of 130 million with calling plan options to "any mobile," Rollover Minutes and A-List (for those who might benefit from this)

G) Accelerated expansion of 4G LTE network (if AT&T stays true to their word)

Like I said earlier there are negatives (most personal gripes) but ones that need to be reviewed/explored. I'll save those for the other thread.

[Scottish Skyedance]

I am just wondering.
If some agree the merger, why don't go to AT&T right now (and mod should not delete my post on another thread for questioning)?
You will lose your grandfathered stuffs as soon as merger is done, period, and you have to suffer overloaded AT&T network, and not to mention your device from T-Mobile will become useless except it has UMTS 850/1900.
If ALL US carriers run on SIM-based GSM/UMTS network, I don't really care, but it is not. After that ATT is ONE AND ONLY SIM-based carrier until LTE is fully deployed on VZW and Metro, but I'd avoid Metro because they have NO laptop service.

[Danny4G]

I posted my perceived pros of this mobile marriage here: http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...8#post14335108

As for my gripes:

A) Rate plan choices. Yes I think we all realize that AT&T does not cater to the value conscious customer despite the hype.

B) 2GB data plans: Sure that might be enough for some but I find myself going well over that more and more as mobile data becomes my primary reason for using a mobile phone. (I hardly talk anymore)

C) Network management: AT&T does have a larger network than T-Mobile but many could argue that quality seems to be left out of the equation in some areas. Dropped calls and poor voice quality reports run rampant here in Southern California from my clients and family members who currently use AT&T. Despite having deeper pockets than Verizon and a huge amount of resources available AT&T continues to struggle with this.

D) Customer service: I realize everyone does not have a bad experience. But I'll tell you this: From someone who contacts them several times daily on behalf of my clients they truly have some work to do. Too many IVR mazes and reps who love to transfer. Entering MTN's and PIN's through their automated systems appear worthless as the reps insist on asking for all this data again when someone finally picks up. I do most of my calls during the afternoon (PDT) and I seem to get sent to Premier offshore reps who are difficult to understand and are way too scripted. I hate getting asked for the device SIM # and IMEI in order to get support and these offshore reps seem to be fixated on getting that info before helping customers.

E) Less choice: Removing a value oriented carrier out of the mix benefits AT&T/Verizon more than the customer. It allows them to charge more for capped data and meter our usage in order to charge us overages.

The reasons above are not necessarily reasons to scrap the buyout altogether in my opinion but I believe the FCC and DOJ need to carefully look at all the cons and have AT&T make some serious consumer friendly concessions. All eyes are on all parties involved.

I want AT&T to commit to a 2-3 year window to complete their LTE network and want them to expand it to 98% of Americans instead of 95%.

Cheaper to keep her: AT&T is already paying over $1k per T-Mobile customer. It would make sense to allow us to keep our rate plans as long as we pay on time and remain a loyal subscriber or at least for a specified period in writing.

[Scottish Skyedance]

You missed one point:
AT&T is ultimate Android enemy. Many Android phones from AT&T are crippled.
No sideloading is a major concern. I have several apk files which are no longer available in the market (antplayer is one of them). In addition, you can't get PDAnet from the market but you can get it with Android phones from VZW.

I posted my perceived pros of this mobile marriage here: http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...8#post14335108

As for my gripes:

A) Rate plan choices. Yes I think we all realize that AT&T does not cater to the value conscious customer despite the hype.

B) 2GB data plans: Sure that might be enough for some but I find myself going well over that more and more as mobile data becomes my primary reason for using a mobile phone. (I hardly talk anymore)

C) Network management: AT&T does have a larger network than T-Mobile but many could argue that quality seems to be left out of the equation in some areas. Dropped calls and poor voice quality reports run rampant here in Southern California from my clients and family members who currently use AT&T. Despite having deeper pockets than Verizon and a huge amount of resources available AT&T continues to struggle with this.

D) Customer service: I realize everyone does not have a bad experience. But I'll tell you this: From someone who contacts them several times daily on behalf of my clients they truly have some work to do. Too many IVR mazes and reps who love to transfer. Entering MTN's and PIN's through their automated systems appear worthless as the reps insist on asking for all this data again when someone finally picks up. I do most of my calls during the afternoon (PDT) and I seem to get sent to Premier offshore reps who are difficult to understand and are way too scripted. I hate getting asked for the device SIM # and IMEI in order to get support and these offshore reps seem to be fixated on getting that info before helping customers.