AT&T to acquire T-Mobile USA

[Haas_Dave]

I have something in my mind. FTC may not allow this buyout to pass because it will cause "SIM monopoly".
If it happens, the "combo" has to split into 2 entities.nt was suspended for deployment. Same thing happened on some peers too.

I also forsee a major market split happening. I can see the FTC allowing this only with the split, just like the ATTWS merger.

Possibly most of the AWS coverage will go to at&t, and the non-AWS spectrum in major metros will most likely go to a 'new' carrier or [super]regionals like Metro, USCC or possibly Cellular One/MTPCS. I kinda hope that [super]regionals get most if not all of the overlapping markets, as a bunch of them need a boost and and an ability to compete a decent amount now.

[mfrerkes]

this really suck. I can't imagine how this is good for consumers?

The owners of this country don't want what is good for consumers...they want what is good for their re-election coffers. They're hoping we'll be distracted enough with other things not to notice, and for good measure, they'll kiss our butts again right around election time by telling us they're for the working man.

[Scottish Skyedance]

Wirelessly posted (HTC Nexus One: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_7; en-us) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/530.17)

Don't forget the truth: Android devices from AT&T is badly crippled, so it'll be bad for Android when it happens.

[reuthermonkey]

How unfortunate. The likes of T-Mobile's MyFaves, Sprint's AnyMobile, T-Mobile's successful family plans, Sprint's WiMax, T-Mobile's HSPA+ - were all to remain competitive. In one way or the other, it forced ATT and VZW to lower their pricing, or provide better service. It's no surprise that the networks with the first "4g" were the smaller carriers. Anyone truly think that ATT would be deploying HSPA+ now if T-Mobile hadn't begun deploying last year?

Without competitive national carriers, we'll be stuck with supermassive ATT, supermassive VZW, and plummet down to the prepaids with no coverage. Sure, they'll "compete" in the LTE field. Just like that Exxon "competes" with that Shell down the street (reality check: they don't actually compete - they collude).

Fan-freaking-tastic. Talk about the beginning of the end for wireless competition in America.

[HappyBunny]

And you know the FCC wont block this. They are a rubberstamp for whatever the corporate pirates want. They will ask for some sort of token gesture, like continuing T-Mobile customer's plans for a year or something, but they will let it go through, you wait and see.

[thegr8one]

for all you at&t coverage haters, at&t is getting all of Tmobiles towers. Talk about twice the coverage. If i were a verizon customer i'd switch to at&t as its going to dominate in voice coverage.

[rattili]

Well, there goes my $49 family plan with myFaves and the $5.99 T-zones...

[billm261]

for all you at&t coverage haters, at&t is getting all of Tmobiles towers. Talk about twice the coverage. If i were a verizon customer i'd switch to at&t as its going to dominate in voice coverage.

AT&T already has better voice coverage for the most part which would be an instant benefit to T-Mobile users. AT&T is gaining some much needed capacity.

Eventually, the unlimited data will go away when you change your device so I'd buy something I really like and keep it as long as I can.

[HappyBunny]

@rattili: I think AT&T has to honor people's plans as long as you dont change them. I am long out of contract though, not sure what would happen to me if I were to stick around.

[jasper933]

I have to say I didn't see this coming. I really thought there was going to be a merger with Sprint. I wonder if the government would allow this bing there would be only one true GSM carrier (it will all be LTE soon anyway so the point may ne moot)

I agree with you on this. I did not see this coming. There goes competition, my rates, my unlimited data, unlimited international calling, text all for $90.00 a month including taxes etc. Now I will have to live with 900 min, 2G of data, $20.00 unlimited text, who knows how much for international calling.

[Antenna]

Bye bye T-Mobile, I am not sticking around while F##king AT&Trash destroys the last good carrier in the USA. Guess enough people voted with their wallets for inferior carrier so one had to fold.

Hello Verizon!

[The_Sweeper]

Wasn't T-Mobile just named one of the most ethical companies in the US?

Didn't DT's CEO rule out a sell out less than a month ago?

On February 25th, the Wall Street Journal printed up a quick statement from Deutsche Telekom CFO Timotheus Hoettges who ruled out an “outright” sale of the US branch of DT, our beloved T-Mobile USA

http://www.tmonews.com/2011/03/deuts...stop-worrying/

DT saw the writing on the wall and decided to abandon the sinking ship. A lousy 8% equity stake?

This sucks for the T-Mobile loyalists big time.

All Verizon has to do is gobble up Sprint and it's game over for competition.

You want an honest CEO? Those words do not do together.

[zivan56]

You guys better complain before its too late, as you might end up with what we have in Canada which is known as Robellus (Rogers, Bell, and Telus). 2 of the companies have one network which they share and claim not to. Then Rogers which colludes with them.
They have the same prices, phones, and yet claim to be competing with one another. Whenever there is a wireless spectrum auction, they all buy ~33% of new spectrum which they have no plans to use.

We used to have a T-Mobile subsidiary called Fido, they were bought out by Rogers which basically removed all the unlimited plans and increased the price of other plans the next day after the purchase. The main reason they bought Fido is because they were getting too successful and killed the rest in terms of innovation. Basically, Fido was the first GSM network in Canada (compared to ancient TDMA net Rogers had, and Bell/Telus first gen CDMA net), first GPRS network in North America, first to do by second billing, and first to do unlimited plans.

To date, Rogers does not have a plan that even matches the plans Fido had when they were bought out in 2004. They even market a new plan under the same name (but not even close to it) because they don't want people knowing about/transferring the grandfathered plans (which go for hundreds of dollars on craigslist).

[billm261]

You want an honest CEO? Those words do not do together.

Oh I know, that's what I find so pathetic. He probably made that statement while on the phone with the reporter and had Randall Stephenson sitting in his office.

[Nas6034]

This is very disappointing i hope this gets blocked we would only have one major GSM carrier..


I hope this get blocked, and if DT does sell I hope its to another European carrier.