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

sohelpme said:
"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.
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um...adding all Tmobiles towers will reduce stress on ATTs nearby towers, improving quality (they said quality, not physical coverage)

and adding TMobiles subscribers to ATT means those people will now have access to LTE in a few years, something TMobile never planned on doing, so it increases the overall number of consumers to whom LTE is going to be available, which brings the number up to apparently 294 million (I'm assuming that would be ATT, Verizons, and TMobiles customers combined)

so what in that statement is not true?
 
macsrcool1234 said:
All T-Mobile customers should expect a sharp decrease in call quality and sharp increase in dropped calls.
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...As well as a sharp decrease in customer service, a sharp decrease in generous calling/texting/data plans, and a sharp increase in fees.
 
URFloorMatt said:
For the obvious reason: if you run the network and the phone's reception sucks, then you're to blame. If you don't run the network, then you just let everyone blame the company that does.
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I disagree with Apple running a telecom but to say that they don't do so just so that they have an excuse is just silliness. There are plenty of other reasons why, such as:
- It's not anywhere near their core competency
- Telecoms are becoming more and more of a commodity
- Would limit the number of iPhone customers in the US
- Lots of federal, state and local regulatory headaches
- and why? what do they gain?
 
i-John said:
Better coverage as they will have better cell site coverage. Less people per tower now means more bandwidth per customer.
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So which is happening - less people using cell phones or more towers?

In fact, the same number of people (ATT plus TMO) will be using the same number of towers (ATT + TMO). Some people will see better coverage because they are able to use towers they didn't before. Some will see worse coverage, as people who couldn't use their towers now will be able to.
 
dccorona said:
um...adding all Tmobiles towers will reduce stress on ATTs nearby towers, improving quality (they said quality, not physical coverage)

and adding TMobiles subscribers to ATT means those people will now have access to LTE in a few years, something TMobile never planned on doing, so it increases the overall number of consumers to whom LTE is going to be available, which brings the number up to apparently 294 million (I'm assuming that would be ATT, Verizons, and TMobiles customers combined)

so what in that statement is not true?
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It might be true in the short run, but you bet that AT&T will reduce the tower count to the bare minimum over time. This merger isn't about improving service for existing customers—it's about raising profits. The best way to raise profits (at least according to the people who run AT&T given their decisions since they were known as SBC) is not to improve customer service and satisfaction or provide a better product, but reduce competition and squeeze every bit out of the capital assets they have.

What does this mean in the long run? Fewer towers, poor cell service, poor customer service, and higher prices for consumers.
 
nateo200 said:
Point...?...Physicians aren't all geniuses and exempt to spelling. Medical school doesn't teach writing so much as idk MEDICAL things. Regardless no need to be a dick about it (not you the other guy).
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Disagrees. Medicine, especially academic medicine requires a very good grasp of the English language. You could be one of the brightest pea in the pod, but if you're papers sound like they are written by a toddler, the whole validity of the paper, regardless of the evidence / inferences made, would be somewhat snubbed.

all medical school taught me - was 5 yrs of being a student - a breeze
the real work starts once you qualify - what a shock that was! :eek:
 
acidfast7 said:
I meant service on an options level. You still can't buy an unlocked iPhone without a contract. Rural areas in Scandinavia will be 80Mb/s by the end of the year (150Mb/s in urban areas), this is an area with less than 1/3 population density of California.

I just think the lack of choice will really hurt you guys.
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are you sure you don't mean 8 and 15? My wired ethernet high speed connection only goes 20...
 
johnnyturbouk said:
Disagrees. Medicine, especially academic medicine requires a very good grasp of the English language. You could be one of the brightest pea in the pod, but if you're papers sound like they are written by a toddler, the whole validity of the paper, regardless of the evidence / inferences made, would be somewhat snubbed.

all medical school taught me - was 5 yrs of being a student - a breeze
the real work starts once you qualify - what a shock that was! :eek:
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Point taken. The end all point is bad grammar doesn't throw away all your intelligence. I have meh grammar and meh math skills but that doesn't mean I'll give up my goals of being a half way decent doctor. Just out of curiosity, what kind of doctor are you? PS. Typo in your signature on the iPhone 4...not sure if its intentional or not :D
 
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I just read some comments on Engadget and it seems like a lot of T-Mobile customers are switching. Why? Their coverage wont be getting worst. They'll just be able to use AT&T towers when their T-Mobile towers aren't available.
 
This is absolute crap. I am a T-Mobile customer because I can't stand the way AT&T or Verizon do business and both companies plans are outrageous. The customer loses once again.
 
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) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

ATT will have a field day now with jailbreaked iphones, it also means higher fees for all. Monopoly is a bytch...

Now only one company in the US will have GSM is this right? Time to go back to Sprint $69.99 unlimited plan while I can..... This buy sucks
 
R.Perez said:
This is absolute crap. I am a T-Mobile customer because I can't stand the way AT&T or Verizon do business and both companies plans are outrageous. The customer loses once again.
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If you're unhappy you could go without a phone. No one is making you have one.
 
tigres said:
Ever take any Econ? Think your price and data will be cheaper and more in the future should this go through? I could care less about the spectrum.
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AT&T wasn't currently and wasn't going to ever price their services to try and compete with TMobile. They were up against Verizon, so losing out on TMobile takes away the low price option for people who were in areas where they could get TMobile, but it isn't going to make ATT raise their prices. If anything, it could potentially lower them because they can afford to, since they don't have to try and keep people from using data as much, as this gives them more bandwidth in areas that ATT and TMo had cell towers. Of course, I doubt that'll happen, but you can see how it opens up that potential
 
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