AT&T Buys T-Mobile – AT&T Now King?
UPDATE: Verizon Wireless has stated they have no comment on this occasion as of yet.
That's right folks - it's official.
According to a report from MSNBC, AT&T and Deutsch Telekom, parent company of their USA-based endeavor better known as T-Mobile, have agreed to sell off the venture for a whopping $39 Billion. With a 'B'. This will not only hand over the entire major GSM market to AT&T in a mini-monopoly, but also make the carrier the largest in the USA by a large margin.
We're going to contact our folks over at AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint. Whomever respond, we'll throw in here as a rebuttal! We are just as worried and excited as the rest of our community to find out what this means next!
Source: MSNBC, with thanks to Itster!
© 2011, Laos101. All rights reserved.
First comment: Anyways, wow this is NEWS. As well stated what is next? If competition drives prices down, and everyone seems to be abandoning the deals we used to love. Is the wireless cellphone market just going to keep going up in price?
As I said in the other thread, if this goes through and the DOJ doesn’t file anti-trust charges, you can next expect Verizon to buy Sprint. Expect higher prices going forward. It seems we are headed for the old Ma Bell eventually when another 5-10 years Verizon and AT&T merge and we’ll have to start renting our phones again.
Very bad news for the USA.
elcapo24682 Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 1:57 pm
@NIKKG, hope that doesn’t happen. AT$T is the devil
Nah, Verizon will no longer have the hold on customers claiming “the best network” when GSM coverage would be better. People who are on Verizon will look to see what is offered.
They have to compete, if prices just go up, we would be going backwards. As I stand, if the coverage is great what ever carrer I look at, it will be down to price and phones.
The prices would have to complete, even if it’s $5 a month but, as phones go, GSM always had better phones (T-mobile always had the better ones). Verizon would really have to do something to keep people.
I’m thinking a HD2 on AT&Ts new network….that would be EPIC !
Can’t wait for this to be all finalized (T-moble & AT&T as one and network relfecting this), then I might seriously think about dumping Verizon.
wonder what ATT has to give up for this… VZW had to give up alot in smaller markets to aquire Alltel…
and what happened to competition??? Att buys Tmobile… Vzw buys Alltel.. Sprint buys Nextel/Boost and Virgin Mobile… now watch Metro(who is also looking to Partner Up w/ LightSquared) buy USCC and Cricket…
and Sprints got to be FUMMING MADD!!!!! since they recently tried to strike a deal with TMO…
Ah well, guess Sprint goes back to be the best value for customers… maybe not absolute best rates on All Plans, but w/ Unlimited Data and No Throttling you cant beat em if your a power user.. IMO of course………… but once, IF, ATT does get TMO’s assets – Kiss TMOs decent rate plans GOODBYE and say hello to $45 data/tether add-ons(oh yeah for 4GB only)…
If i was a TMO customer Id be worried right about now….
On a more positive note: ATT/TMOs LTE network will be sick when its all said and done.. All that infrastructure… All that overhaul by both companies in the last year(and more to come).. Once its done, ATT will actually have to Limit users, for real, of LTE because youd be able to use 100′s of GB’s, maybe even a TB a month with all the purposed Speeds by both..
Wtf??…. Ok let me get this, AT&T has all this money to buy T-Mobile but not enough to build more cell towers to improve the damn network?!
alphaxi3 Reply:
March 20th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
@leon_live, They just did.
snowplow54 Reply:
March 20th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
@alphaxi3, yet i still wont have 3G in my area.
leon_live Reply:
March 20th, 2011 at 7:53 pm
@alphaxi3, One thing is buying the competition and another is delivering a real improved network, hope you are right, if not Verizon and Sprint may get more customers because of the ones that moved from AT&T to T-Mobile.
I think AT&T will be fined around 15 to 20 million for monopoly fees for sure.
jamice4u Reply:
March 20th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
@Whosdaman, They will easily make that back next month.
FIRST OFF.. Laos101, you should be thanking me for sending you and courtney a link to this story via email/PM when this story was only 2 minutes old. The thank you is for taking the time out of my busy day to alert you.
second off, if they allow you to keep your original contract with t-mobile, this is an amazing deal for t-mobile customers.
Laos101 Reply:
March 20th, 2011 at 5:38 pm
@itster, My apologies, forgot about crediting you
itster Reply:
March 20th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
@Laos101, it’s cool, just giving you a hard time
Earmuffs Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 3:12 am
@itster, LOL ALLOW!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!! You make it sound like they are being NICE lets bee reall it would be a nightmare if they did not! Legally they can’t modify your contact without out your consent if they do you have to be notified and you are free to terminate your contract with no fees… DUH! Sorry not trying to be rude but thats like saying I’m going to not a*s r*p* you because I’m so nice and expect you to think so. Doing what is right, justified, legally enforceable and what keeps the customers on their network was just a smart financial move. If I was a T-Mo customer and AT&T Changed my contract I would terminate with no fee and move networks base on the fact AT&T is a devil baby r*per. Best case scenario if they changed the terms of a service contract agreement they would be paying out the *ss is subsidized handsets because you would be a dumb Martha Focker to not early term for free and get a new phone. [/Rant]
Hopfully that will help out their network cause AT&T’s network suck!
Ha ha! AT&T-Mobile.
So much for the last two years of rumors about Sprint taking over AT&T. LOL! IDK what Sprint would have done. Would they have tried phones that implimented iDEN, CDMA, and GSM. haha…
Anyway, I’m sure there are going to be anti-trust suites and what-not. My proposed solution – sell T-Mobile to Google. =P haha
Hello Metro PCS, here we come
lol, good one
well for one they will prob have to give up a bunch of spectrum T-Mobile has a lot of it being a major carrier…
That said, expect Sprint prices to go up
..with T-Mobile out of the way..Sprint has less competition in the low price arena…aka they can jack their prices all the way up to $5 short of Verizon/ATT :/
This sucks for tmobile customers. As of right now tmobile will throttle if you go over 5gigs and now att will change it completely. Now they can’t even reach 3gigs without being charged since att has the 2gb cap. This really sucks for the consumer. Att is not only screwing the mobile customer but now they are screwing the dsl customer with the new caps they are putting. I am really glad I am not an att mobile customer and will soon not be a dsl customer anymore. Switching back to cable. Now maybe verizon will compete more and lower their prices now that they are no longer the top dog in the game.
Its AT&T&T
DOJ…we need the gov to step in.
sprint responds to the merger
http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/20110320/sprint-atts-t-mobile-buy-would-dramatically-alter-market/
NIKKG Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 8:15 am
@itster, All you Sprint SERO users can all kiss SERO goodbye as Sprint raises rates since it doesn’t have to battle T-Mobile any longer.
Aleki Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 9:50 am
@NIKKG, wouldnt be too sure yet. the colum made it sound like sprint may be the odd child out as the top two would control 80% of the PP market. if this is the case, and verizon doesnt renew their roaming agreement with sprint, sprint may have to agressively compete to gain new subscribers.
itster Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 9:19 pm
@NIKKG, i don’t/never had a sero plan.. i have the everything family plan.. $129 -20%(corp discount) + $20
as i see it their are two wireless markets, distinctly different.
CDMA and GSM.
this would give AT&T all the GSM market, making leaving them and keeping your phone pointless.
mindfrost82 Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 2:22 pm
@thesteve42, While At&t and T-Mobile are the two GSM carriers, the only way to keep your phone between the two is if you’re willing to give up 3G and only use 2G/Edge. At&t and T-Mobile use different frequencies for their 3G, so even if you left and took your phone, you would be stuck without 3G. There are a FEW quad-band 3G phones out there, but not many.
At&t is planning on using T-Mobile’s 3G frequency/spectrum for LTE from the sound of it.
when did att start dsl caps?
When mixing two rather unattractive things, the outcome is generally unattractive too. Girls would be the exception. And At&t and T-Mobile are both like chicks. So that being said, the combo might be pretty cool. But who knows. I’ve never banged two networks at once. Might be rad.
Really surprised by some of the crazy comments in here about how this is going to drive down prices. Lack of competition causes prices to increase, never to decrease and leaving us with only three major nationwide cell companies is an absolute sure lock to see prices increase for everyone.
I’m hoping that this merger/buy out will be denied and not allowed to happen. T-Mobile customers who think this is a good thing for them only believe that because they must have never been on AT&T (I have). The worst service, the worst customer service I have ever experienced and I have been using cell service since the very early 90′s and have been with every cell company there is in my area.
AT&T says it will improve services but from what I’ve seen over the years, they don’t have the quality of network engineering staff to know how to be able to handle their network sufficiently. I suspect they will take the new spectrum and turn it into the same type of totally crappy network that they have now.
R
NSTar Reply:
March 21st, 2011 at 6:53 pm
@racedog, You forgot MCI wireless…now, that’s the worst.
Is there anything we can stop this? I do not like big company. AT&T and Comcast are two of them that we dont want them to get big.
This is bad for consumers and with their high prices and horrible service, I dont see how they had as many subscribers as they had before the merger. The iPhone is not enough for me to get raped.
Hopefully they go bankrupt and I can buy their network for $2 dollars and some pocket lint then I will fire the as*hats that support their customers higher competent people provide good service hmmm efff that I’ll merge with USCC and have then take over customer support they are amazing 4G LTE for USCC, AT&T and T-Mo Customers in Wisconsin would be my first priority. And eff data caps and no tethering if you buy your internet through my isp tethering is free with no data caps. You would be free to use what ever speed is faster so if you are out in bum f*ck Egypt with AT&T dial up but 4gLTE @ 30mbps on your cell have at our bad for not having some solid copper. I’d sell Bandwith junkie internet packages that would include uncapped downstream during non peak usage and ultra upstream through put for uploads the HECK throw in the ability to use downstream on your phone and home connection at the same time 90mbps down anyone (60mbps home +30mbps 4gLTE). I’d sell my customers an anonymizing VPN package like viper vpn or a seeb box account if i detected torrent usage and just kick torrent traffic off my network all together unless they were using a vpn or seed box. Then I don’t have to deal with the legal headaches I would run an opensource freeware tracker that was publicly accessible and seeded by my isp so no one could cry about legitimate use. If they cry I send then an email to go to slyck and a coupon for a month free of usenet then tel them to eat a D*Ck cause I’m the nicest bandwith provider in the world keeping them outa court. Oh also all new phones would feature video calling weather or not you were on a data plan or smart phone. No needing to know a user name you just call your friend and if they have a video phone you have the option to open a video link. Imagine a nice little flip for the non tech savvy person with the ability to just call and talk with video. Free minutes when your at home or any where with at&t wifi cause my phones would send all data over voip (maybe scratch the data at home through phone and internet unless your on a bandwidth junkie plan) but still no data caps on mobile data usage for customers who have home internet through at&t. Anyway I would be a major bada*s carrier