AT&T Acquiring T-Mobile

[zaksdad]

AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom | Business Wire (http://bit.ly/dOWIqa)

[aiharkness]

Just saw that. Don't know yet whether to be happy or sad.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

[NJBlackBerry]

Subject to government approval.

And I agree with you Ira....

[aiharkness]

Yeah, I went back to read the article through. Seems regulatory approval is still ahead.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

[NJBlackBerry]

Reduces major carriers from four to three (OK, they count Sprint as major) :)
Reduces competition
Leads to higher prices and fewer choices

[mvincelli]

My T-Mobile $59.00 a month 1000 minutes ,Unlimited text, Internet, Data Plan is I am sure no longer going to be honored, so I can plan on spending at least another $40.00 a month for the same type of service.

[rambo47]

If this is allowed to proceed, what are the chances of a Verizon/Sprint tie-up? The logical consolidation path is GSM+GSM and CDMA+CDMA.

1. Would Verizon want Sprint?
2. Would the FTC be more or less prone to allow another consolidation? From 4 majors to 3 majors is big, but from 3 to 2 is even more dramatic. I guess the question is whether or not the FTC has a new, more permissive attitude concerning consolidation in telecom.

[stevetaz]

mvincelli, that is the plan my daughter is on for 3+ years and I expect it will be going away. That is too bad. And my experience with TMo's support personnel has been excellent.

I am not hopeful this will be good for the consumer....

Think the new company name will be AT&T&TNoMo?

[Dubdub]

Moved to the General BB Discussion section.

No sense getting your knickers in a knot over this just yet. We don't know the details, everything is pure speculation and it will probably take at least a year before it is approved and the deal closes and then who knows how long to integrate T-Mo into AT&T, or vice versa. Speculation does no one any good.

My guess is AT&T will probably have to sell some parts off to get approval just as Verizon did when it bought Alltel last year.

[NJBlackBerry]

And there will be all sorts of promises about what AT&T-Mo will do after closing...
This is far from done...

[tsac]

They would not have announced this to the business community unless they were reasonably sure of full approval. Att ( the original SBC)has been purchasing smaller companys for a few years with out much fanfare. The majority have been companys that either were in trouble financially or were unable to keep up with the market demands. I would suspect ATT will honor any current contracts but if a subscriber changes any of the plan features they will be forced to use a current plan. This is the normal procedure most big companys follow today. Generally it is not in the best interest of a consumer to change if the current plan covers things they need. Where they get you is if you need to increase minutes or other basic parts of a plan and all bets are off.
My other suspicion is T-Mobile was ahead of ATT in the LTE ( 4G) rollout and may not have been able to sustain the growth to fully expand. Also market share is a big factor today for any company. Verizon is rated top and either way ATT has to catch up.

[rambo47]

One thing is for sure: the lobbyists will by busy little beavers! There is still a chance the FTC will veto the idea, or add such onerous conditions that they scrap the plan rather than comply.

Watch Sprint's stock nose-dive tomorrow at the opening. The current share price had a probable deal with DT built in. They just got the rug pulled out from under them.

[Dubdub]

I wonder if Sprint was just trying to push the price up to make AT&T pay more?

[rambo47]

I wonder if Sprint was just trying to push the price up to make AT&T pay more?

I don't give them enough credit to have thought that up by themselves. :-( I have watched them make one head-scratching decision after another, unable to figure out what they're thinking.

[yahtzee]

Down almost 12% at open.

[jaszman]

They would not have announced this to the business community unless they were reasonably sure of full approval. Att ( the original SBC)has been purchasing smaller companys for a few years with out much fanfare. The majority have been companys that either were in trouble financially or were unable to keep up with the market demands. I would suspect ATT will honor any current contracts but if a subscriber changes any of the plan features they will be forced to use a current plan. This is the normal procedure most big companys follow today. Generally it is not in the best interest of a consumer to change if the current plan covers things they need. Where they get you is if you need to increase minutes or other basic parts of a plan and all bets are off.
My other suspicion is T-Mobile was ahead of ATT in the LTE ( 4G) rollout and may not have been able to sustain the growth to fully expand. Also market share is a big factor today for any company. Verizon is rated top and either way ATT has to catch up.

Yeah, I see your point, but a big question in my mind is what ATT will do when it comes to EM+ customers from Tmobile.

I don't think ATT has anything like EM+ . I am customer who had a cellphone contract (2yrs) and never took another out after it ended, later I found out I could get discounts to my plan if I switched to EM+ which is a plan that requires me to buy all cellphones that I want for my service (at full price, no discounts, from anyone I care to buy them from) and in exchange I got 2 things from them, 1) lower monthly rates for all services ($59 1500 family shared mins, $10 BIS, $10 4g smartphone, $10 unl text, $5 add a phone, etc) 2) and this was important to me. I will never have a contract again, I could continue their service as long as I was happy with them, or if I ever became unhappy I could simply walk away after a phone call.

Simple, these are our cellphone rates, as long as we don't have to keep feeding you new cellphones. Stay and buy our service as long as you want. I loved it.

Now I'm just not sure what ATT is going to with these plans. Will they grandfather somthing like that. Services without contracts

[Dubdub]

Congress is now getting into the act and holding a hearing.

My guess is that it will be 18 to 24 months before it all gets done and integrated and T-Mo goes away.

[TruckerMike]

My T-Mobile $59.00 a month 1000 minutes ,Unlimited text, Internet, Data Plan is I am sure no longer going to be honored, so I can plan on spending at least another $40.00 a month for the same type of service.

I sure that if this does happen i'm sure that existing customers of AT&T and T-Mobile will be allowed to keep their existing plans but new customers will be faced with new plans and rates.

I am looking forward to this merger in a way because it would extend my coverage to places other than that does anyone know what the negatives are other than it allowing AT&T to set the standard prices for other providers ?

[kevinlittell]

3 thoughts on the subject....


1: The more things change the more they stay the same....



T-Mobile had alot more gigabit-ethernet equiped sites then ATT Mobility Wireless and with all of the bad press ATT was getting they want the Higher speed sites to fill gaps. Its a good match carrier wise.... We'll see how bad the Uppidee Upppes want to screw the existing customer base when they make the decisions on grandfathering customer plans.....I think they will be required to honor any contracts they inherit and T customers will prolley stay on whatever plan they are currently on until they call customer service.... Key here is to avoid calling customer service.




#2 The only people the Uppidee Uppes at ATT care about are the stock holders and the recipients of Execcutive Bonus's... Customers and employees be damned. I wonder how ATT is going to mesh the T-Mobile folks into the company and suspect it will not be pretty.


But existing ATT customers may reap benefits of faster service from the T-Mobile sites...I suspect that is all they will notice(if that)



3:If in doubt refer to #2.

[rambo47]

Verizon has now said flat out that they have no interest in Sprint. Looks to me that if the deal gets approval this century Sprint will be shoved into the "low-priced alternative" to Verizon and AT&T-Mobile. Sprint could do well in that role, and may even pick up some of the T-Mobile customers that bail on AT&T. One of the questions for Sprint becomes, "How can we screw this up?" The easiest way would be to reject the idea of being the low-cost alternative and take the opportunity to raise their own plan prices. Considering Sprint's weak financial position I fear this would be their first thought.

My next concern, if the deal goes through, is that the consolidation of four Tier 1 carriers down to three would make it harder (or impossible) for another consolidation down to just two. That means no buyer for Sprint. Maybe that's not a significant concern since Verizon is the only carrier that would make sense for a tie-up with Sprint, and for now Verizon has no interest.

Seems to me the only avenue for Sprint is to be that low-cost alternative. I just hope they embrace it. "Hey, Sprint. DFIU!"


Don't Fsck It Up.

[tsac]

3 thoughts on the subject....


1: The more things change the more they stay the same....



T-Mobile had alot more gigabit-ethernet equiped sites then ATT Mobility Wireless and with all of the bad press ATT was getting they want the Higher speed sites to fill gaps. Its a good match carrier wise.... We'll see how bad the Uppidee Upppes want to screw the existing customer base when they make the decisions on grandfathering customer plans.....I think they will be required to honor any contracts they inherit and T customers will prolley stay on whatever plan they are currently on until they call customer service.... Key here is to avoid calling customer service.




#2 The only people the Uppidee Uppes at ATT care about are the stock holders and the recipients of Execcutive Bonus's... Customers and employees be damned. I wonder how ATT is going to mesh the T-Mobile folks into the company and suspect it will not be pretty.


But existing ATT customers may reap benefits of faster service from the T-Mobile sites...I suspect that is all they will notice(if that)



3:If in doubt refer to #2.


The number of towers is hard to count when each have leases on the same tower. As for the data rate utilized by T-mobile and ATT. They both deploy Gigabyte fiber and copper links back to the offices where customers are received. When they deploy separate antennas on the tower and separate facilities back to their offices, the speed again all depends on what type of facilities are available from the local wire line company. It could be copper or fiber. Because ATT does have more leases and owned sites It may be we will see some sites closed by either when the leases expire. ATT has the majority with 12 years and T-Mobile with 7 years. I would also suggest other than executive bonuses, it has all to do with market share and profit. T-mobile is not a wire line company and in 22 states ATT is. You may even see other changes including as was suggested, abandoning old service plans for new customers or existing customers if they change any components of their existing plans. I expect we will see a lot of complaints and politicians complaining about less competition and higher cost. Remember the Bell system? There were more than 23 consolidated regions under one in 1985 before the breakup. Some owned by the old ATT and some independent. All were broken up into many companies. If you kept score you would now see ATT, Verizon , Quest, just three. There are some smaller ones but even they rely on the big guys.
Want to bet on three or four cell carriers in the future

[netlagger]

I may not have too many things to say about this but here are my Two cents.

It seems as if that AT&T is trying to close the gaps on the markets that they have not covered yet. They are already jumping into the 4G, when they barely have the 3G in a lot of areas. Now I know that this may or may not have much relevance but you guys were talking about the fiber outputs to towers and what not. Earlier this week I heard that nation wide AT&T is actually out of fiber bandwith for DSL customers and what not. I don't know how much of that implies into this but this just seems like a big ploy to cover the wireless network areas that they are too lazy to put 3G in.