Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion

Warbrain

Warbrain

macrumors 603
Jun 28, 2004
5,702
293
Chicago, IL
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8F190)

This will get approved in no time. If the government had no problem with Sprint-Nextel and Verizon-Alltel then this will go fine. Only thing that might happen is the swapping of some subscribers to another service like Verizon and AT&T did with Alltel's regional customers.
 
S

sohelpme

macrumors member
Jan 31, 2009
68
1
"The transaction is said to improve network quality, expand the reach of LTE to more then 294 million people."

Um, unless they are a) moving T-Mobiles network physically or b) buying and installing a whole bunch of new equipment (or modifying the existing equipment to work properly), this transaction will do neither.

Unless, of course, T-Mobile has created an LTE network that covered the US, but was refusing to let anybody in the US sign up to use it.
 
A

andyplace

macrumors member
Jun 18, 2009
73
0
Dear Department of Justice:

Don't let this happen. 100% anticompetitive; the only major GSM carrier in the USA will have full control, and would-be t-mobile customers will be stuck with AT&T prices.
 
Lotso

Lotso

macrumors 6502
Jul 21, 2010
341
0
OC, California
@Loves2Spoon lol thanks for the nostalgia.


I am currently wondering two things:
1. How long until At&t customers can tell the difference?
2. Does this mean At&t is not going to outfit a 4G network on they're own?
 
M

MarkNY

macrumors regular
Jun 21, 2010
228
103
acidfast7 said:
American cell/mobile/handy service is already horrible on a global level. I can't imagine that reducing the competition will help at all.

I weep even more for the digital consumer in the US :(
Click to expand...

Yeah, American service sucks, but much of that is to do with the low population densities across much of a huge country making the construction of the network ridiculously expensive. I wonder how good cell service is in rural areas of Europe.
 
U

uruseiranma

macrumors newbie
Jan 6, 2011
24
0
Well, that makes me feel a little better about canceling my contract with them last summer after it had expired.
 
G

Grimmeh

macrumors member
Jul 6, 2009
55
0
So what, now T-Mobile–AT&T will force smartphone data plans and tethering costs, too? There goes the only alternative to a non-standard iPhone carrier. I don’t like this. Wireless providers are already terrible, one less competitor isn’t going to help. :mad:
 
SactoGuy18

SactoGuy18

macrumors 601
Sep 11, 2006
4,360
1,517
Sacramento, CA USA
Holy bleep!
158.gif


What will happen to all those users of the Google Nexus One and Nexus S cellphones?
 
L

LordJohnWhorfin

macrumors regular
May 28, 2002
166
37
Great for AT&T

Sucks for everybody else. Less competition, fewer choices, guaranteed price hikes and stunts like they've been pulling such as capping usage, enforcing tethering fees, etc...
Write your representatives and request that they do not allow this merger to go through. We need more competition, not just two megacorps colluding to fleece us (Sprint is bleeding red ink and won't be around much longer)
 
S

SAIRUS

macrumors 6502a
Aug 21, 2008
820
517
What I'm interested here is the frequencies used by the companies. Are we going to see T-Mobile towers also support AT&T 3G now?

Could AT&T now start adding T-Mobile frequency access on future phones? Will they remove the T-Mobile frequency all together and strengthen their network?

Probably won't do anything. Just enhanced edge coverage.
 
rumz

rumz

macrumors 65816
Feb 11, 2006
1,218
633
Utah
tigres said:
How does not scream higher prices for all?
Who can think this is possibly good? AT&T will now have the only GSM spectrum (basically) and can raise the prices, lower the caps, and constrict users even more.
Click to expand...

This. Unfortunate since t-mo is currently more affordable than AT&T.
 
skellener

skellener

macrumors 68000
Jun 23, 2003
1,786
543
So. Cal.
Less choice for consumers! Whoohooooooo!!!!!!

/s :mad:

So what happens when you combine the best customer service provider with the worst? D'oh!!
 
N

N3rds

macrumors newbie
Feb 13, 2011
9
0
hmm...

I don't know who would 'meed' a T-mobile iPhone, but some people might need one...
 
C

cvaldes

macrumors 68040
Dec 14, 2006
3,237
0
somewhere else
Branskins said:
Does anyone know how this will improve AT&Ts coverage and network?
Click to expand...
No one knows because AT&T hasn't announced a timetable for network integration. For sure, it will be many months, possibly a year or two before consumers seen real benefits.

AT&T and T-Mobile USA are both GSM carriers, however they operate their 3G data services on different frequencies. The standard North American frequencies for 3G data were all allocated out, so when T-Mobile wanted spectrum, they were assigned frequencies in the AWS band (same with Canadian mobile operator WIND).

In previous years, there was no handset hardware that had all the frequencies to use 3G data on both AT&T and T-Mobile USA's networks. The Verizon iPhone has a Qualcomm chip that supports both 3G networks. If the iPhone 5 has the same/similar chip and all the frequencies are enabled, we might see a North American iPhone that can roam between both networks.

T-Mobile subscribers might see more benefits initially. Their HSPA+ network is faster and more broadly deployed than AT&T's right now. When T-Mobile subscribers leave the coverage area, they would roam on AT&T's wider coverage map.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom