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AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom

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kaskade said:
The exciting news for me as a tmobile customer is the iPhone. I wonder if it'd come earlier, like when the iPhone 5 comes out, or only once all the business-y stuff is finished.

When its all finished. iPhone 6 is your best bet
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
They're saying the integration period is 12 months or the time to close is 12 months? This is a big deal but that's a really long period to close.
 

giga

Member
Y2Kev said:
They're saying the integration period is 12 months or the time to close is 12 months? This is a big deal but that's a really long period to close.
Close.

I don't see a reason for Apple to keep the iPhone 5 locked to AT&T anymore since they don't have any more exclusivity deals. Other markets have it unlocked and the iPad is too. It's time. I can dream!
 

Tobor

Member
The big winner in this deal beyond AT&T is Apple. They get access to 35 million new potential customers in 12 months without having to lift a finger.
 

kehs

Banned
Tobor said:
The big winner in this deal beyond AT&T is Apple. They get access to 35 million new potential customers in 12 months without having to lift a finger.

They'll have to rework their antenna/radio, but even that will be a benefit as they can get even further penetration with one model worldwide.
 

giga

Member
numble said:
6j4x5.jpg
Andrex said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCp-1hgfxI
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
Just finished cancelling my T-Mobile plan.

Had a 15 dollar unlimited texting plan that worked great for me. You best believe AT&T will ruin that
 

Tobor

Member
Copernicus said:
They'll have to rework their antenna/radio, but even that will be a benefit as they can get even further penetration with one model worldwide.
They were going to have to do that regardless. iPhone 6 will most likely be the first with LTE.
 

Pastry

Banned
zoner said:
Just finished cancelling my T-Mobile plan.

Had a 15 dollar unlimited texting plan that worked great for me. You best believe AT&T will ruin that
You heard this news and immediately went to cancel your plan? Oh my.
 

RBH

Member
zoner said:
Just finished cancelling my T-Mobile plan.

Had a 15 dollar unlimited texting plan that worked great for me. You best believe AT&T will ruin that
Not really sure why you immediately had to do that....
 

DMeisterJ

Banned
zoner said:
Just finished cancelling my T-Mobile plan.

Had a 15 dollar unlimited texting plan that worked great for me. You best believe AT&T will ruin that
You could have waited for at least a year before that was necessary...
 
Competition and Pricing

The U.S. wireless industry is one of the most fiercely competitive markets in the world and will remain so after this deal. The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world where a large majority of consumers can choose from five or more wireless providers in their local market. For example, in 18 of the top 20 U.S. local markets, there are five or more providers. Local market competition is escalating among larger carriers, low-cost carriers and several regional wireless players with nationwide service plans. This intense competition is only increasing with the build-out of new 4G networks and the emergence of new market entrants.
hahahaohwow.jpg

Seriously, who thought this was a good idea and why are they allowed to make decisions more complicated than choosing which sock to put on first?
 
This is great! It only made sense for them to buy out T-Mobile. I just never thought AT&T would shell out the cash.

I can sell so many more phones when they figure out all the kinks. Plus the call quality will improve in congested areas like NYC and other high populated areas with people who have an iPhone.


Hopefully AT&T and T-Mobile make it a smooth transition.


AT&T planned on having the HSPA+ tech to tie customers over with 4G speeds until it completes its LTE upgrade. T-Mobile never had plans to go to LTE so while they may have had the largest 4G network (don't know if that was ever true) they would have been slow behind Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T's soon to be fast LTE network. So this is good for customers who plan on grabbing a 4G phone in year but kind of screws over previous 4G customers.


I'm thinking it will be like what Verizon did with Alltel. They will let existing T-Mo customers upgrade to AT&T devices while switching to an AT&T price plan.


SPEAKING of that... this should allow for the return of the unlimited data plans. The infustructure is there now. Hopefully AT&T realizes this. They already realize it really... they are allowing customers who used to have unlimited data go back to it if they ask.


God I hope this goes well. There's a lot of money to be made here (for me). I was going to quit my AT&T job since I work full tiem somewhere else but this is too good to drop.

I say wait and see how this turns out. This could turn out Very good or Very bad...
 

tino

Banned
This is hands down the worst news in the tech world this year.

No more cheap preppaid plans and no more good customer service. AND NO MORE UNLOCKED WORLD PHONES.
 
Big move for AT&T, shrewd, but big. This makes them the #1 carrier in the US, and it ain't close.

And honestly? If Verizon doesn't get the iPhone, this doesn't happen. This was pretty much a necessary move by AT&T to remain relevant.

PS: If anyone makes a gif/comic/picture/video whatever parodying the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G girl commercials with this announcement, I will love you forever.
 
tino said:
This is hands down the worst news in the tech world this year.

No more cheap preppaid plans and no more good customer service. AND NO MORE UNLOCKED WORLD PHONES.
Why do you say that? Those phones would work with AT&Ts and T-Mos vcombined network. They would work better now.
 

tino

Banned
GodDuckman said:
Big move for AT&T, shrewd, but big. This makes them the #1 carrier in the US, and it ain't close.

And honestly? If Verizon doesn't get the iPhone, this doesn't happen. This was pretty much a necessary move by AT&T to remain relevant.

PS: If anyone makes a gif/comic/picture/video whatever parodying the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G girl commercials with this announcement, I will love you forever.


No really, this has to do with the fact that TMo USA has no LTE spectrum and the parent company is forced to sell it or merge it with a carrier that does.

TMobile can sell phone just fine without the iPhone. No to mention Verizon hasn't sold that many iPhone anyway.

To the AT&T sales droid, I am sure you will sell more phones, who cares about the consumer choice right?

BlackGoku03 said:
Why do you say that? Those phones would work with AT&Ts and T-Mos vcombined network. They would work better now.

I said it in the sense that a single company in the US will decide what quadband GSM phone to sell and it's going to be harder to unlock them. See ATT's android sideloading policy.
 

Davidion

Member
As a T-Mobile customer this is certainly not what I'd call good news.

It might turn out decent, but you best believe I'm going to keep an eye out for backup plans for my entire family plan when my contact runs out. There is next to nothing from the AT&T business or network that I want as a consumer. Until years down the line when I'd give a flying fuck about LTE, this deal can go smack itself into a rock for all I care.

I could at least be somewhat optimistic if Sprint bought TMo.
 

giga

Member
tino said:
No really, this has to do with the fact that TMo USA has no LTE spectrum and the parent company is forced to sell it or merge it with a carrier that does.

TMobile can sell phone just fine without the iPhone. No to mention Verizon hasn't sold that many iPhone anyway.

To the AT&T sales droid, I am sure you will sell more phones, who cares about the consumer choice right?
http://www.slashgear.com/t-mobile-u...-318000-contract-users-jumped-in-q4-25136165/

They were bleeding. We don't know how well the iPhone is selling on Verizon.
 

DrFunk

not licensed in your state
tino said:
This is hands down the worst news in the tech world this year.

No more cheap preppaid plans and no more good customer service. AND NO MORE UNLOCKED WORLD PHONES.

What? Unlocked phones will be just fine.
 

Kccitystar

Member
GodDuckman said:
Big move for AT&T, shrewd, but big. This makes them the #1 carrier in the US, and it ain't close.

And honestly? If Verizon doesn't get the iPhone, this doesn't happen. This was pretty much a necessary move by AT&T to remain relevant.

PS: If anyone makes a gif/comic/picture/video whatever parodying the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G girl commercials with this announcement, I will love you forever.

From earlier in the thread:

mytouch-4g-carly.jpg


dBBI5.jpg
 

clav

Member
jdmonmou said:
I'm definitely switching to Verizon once my 2 year contract is up this summer. AT&T can go suck a whole penis.
Verizon and AT&T have the same practices in terms of making customers pay more for the service they charge. At least Verizon has the service down.
 

kehs

Banned
tino said:
You call losing 1.7% subscriber in a year bleeding?

iPhone is not a deciding factor, not in the TMo sales anyway. The largest carriers in the world don't carry iPhone. See China Mobile and DoCoMo.

T-Mobile was/is losing money and there's nothing in sight that would say they may have recovered.
 

alphaNoid

Banned
ChanHuk said:
AT&T and T-Mobile use different frequency for 3G don't they?
Nope, both are GSM/GPRS.

Personally I think this was one HELL of a smart move by AT&T.

1. Their 4G deployment sucks balls.
2. They need the infrastructure.

AT&T got a bad rap recently but their network isn't bad at all. It was simply over-saturated from the influx of iPhone users coming to their network. Thus suffered in the public domain which hurt their rep. I'm on VZ these days but have absolutely no tie to either provider. My company pays for my phone and I jump between providers 2-3 times a year whenever a new phone comes out so all I give a shit about is bleeding edge tech and the supporting infrastructure for me to utilize it.

Smart move for AT&T.
 

Le-mo

Member
My contract is expiring in December and since T-Mobile is now AT&T I am really leaning toward getting the Xperia Play with a contract.
 

Seda

Member
Le-mo said:
My contract is expiring in December and since T-Mobile is now AT&T I am really leaning toward getting the Xperia Play with a contract.

This is what I plan on getting too. Always been more a gamer than a gadget collector so it would be the perfect phone for me I think.

Why no (US) release date Sony/Verizon? grr!
 

KtSlime

Member
tino said:
You call losing 1.7% subscriber in a year bleeding?

iPhone is not a deciding factor, not in the TMo sales anyway. The largest carriers in the world don't carry iPhone. See China Mobile and DoCoMo.

*yet* Who know's if the iPhone is or is not a deciding factor, frankly I don't believe it to be. However, you can't make statements such as "Verizon hasn't sold many iPhones" since numbers have not been published. My guess is China Mobile will get it eventually, but is primarily stuck in 2G, so who knows when - as for DoCoMo, when has Japan ever made sense?
 
Copernicus said:
Uh....yeah that's not happening.

Yes it is. It really is.

Just look at the yawning technical canyon that now stands in between Verizon and AT&T-Mobile. Verizon has rolled out LTE successfully in 22 markets, with plans to overlay 75% of Americans with LTE coverage by 2013. AT&T-Mobile combined still have no strategy in place for LTE rollout nor enough spectrum to do it on a single band. Let's not mince any words here: AT&T paid $39 billion for T-Mobile because they were desperate for more infrastructure and spectrum, because at this point they haven't even finished 3G overlay over their much tinier 3G footprint and now they have to chase after Verizon for LTE overlay, and they just lost the only thing that forced people to stay with AT&T all these years when iPhone went to Verizon.

The good news is that $39 billion is basically chump change in global telecom. Deutsche Telekom was pretty desperate to sell off their money-losing T-Mobile USA operations, as the infrastructure investment necessary to make the T-Mobile network competitive with Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T would have amounted to hundreds of billions and DT didn't want to keep losing money for another decade while also investing possible hundreds of billions of dollars to build out the network. AT&T got a lot of value for $39 billion, but now they have to deal with all their phones needing to support a minimum of 4 bands just for covering the US home markets, which will make testing new devices fun.

In general, T-Mobile only covered major US cities where AT&T already had infrastructure. So they won't increase the overall size of coverage. They'll get more capacity in cities though, and most importantly, they now have T-Mobile's extra spectrum for when they start rolling out LTE. Although God knows when that will be at this point. If you have any interest in LTE you should be switching to Verizon ASAP regardless. They've rolled it out, they have a plan in place, and by 2013 if you live anywhere near a major city you should be covered by Verizon LTE.
 

giga

Member
tino said:
You call losing 1.7% subscriber in a year bleeding?

iPhone is not a deciding factor, not in the TMo sales anyway. The largest carriers in the world don't carry iPhone. See China Mobile and DoCoMo.
Yes? Losing 300k contracts is a ton of revenue gone. The iPhone is the best selling phone in the US. Having it with T-Mobile's cheap plans would be more than enough for them to have survived and then some.
 
Either way.. when this gets approved by the FCC.. AT&T is going to have to forfeit tons of items like Verizon did when buying in Alltell.. Those items/customers etc will just go to Sprint/Verizon.
 

tino

Banned
Copernicus said:
T-Mobile was/is losing money and there's nothing in sight that would say they may have recovered.


Well getting their "3.75G" network up and running without pimping it like mad was their mistake.

BTW the biggest loser in this ordeal are Sprint and TMo customers. There was rumor of Sprint and TMo merging, which would have provided enough money for the whole network to move to LTE. Now Sprint is fucked.

Verizon likely won't be hurt by it so much. It will pick up alot of current TMobile customers. I hang out in TMo forum in howardforums. There are a lot of rapid ATT haters. I am not a T Mobile user but I use TMobile prepaid's data service.
I get it for free due to TMo's incompetent network policy.
I expect the free ride to end in a year. Time to try the boost mobile ESN swap tricks.
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
alphaNoid said:
AT&T got a bad rap recently but their network isn't bad at all. It was simply over-saturated from the influx of iPhone users coming to their network.
Wrong. I was with AT&T from back when it was called Cingular until 3 years ago. And I can tell you their service sucked just as bad then as it did when I left 3 years back.
 

Wads

Banned
ivedoneyourmom said:
*yet* Who know's if the iPhone is or is not a deciding factor, frankly I don't believe it to be. However, you can't make statements such as "Verizon hasn't sold many iPhones" since numbers have not been published. My guess is China Mobile will get it eventually, but is primarily stuck in 2G, so who knows when - as for DoCoMo, when has Japan ever made sense?

Iphone is very popular in Japan though.
 
First, Cingular buys out ATT and then becomes ATT.

Then, Verizon buys Alltel.

Now, ATT buys T-Mobile.

What's next, Verizon buys Sprint?
 

Phoenix

Member
Davidion said:
I could at least be somewhat optimistic if Sprint bought TMo.


Sprint is barely in business at this point and they are a few quarters from really being in a situation where they will want to put themselves up for sale as well.
 
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