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

[rjohnstone]

Let's have that monopoly talk in another year once the FCC rubber-stamps the AT&T/T-Mo acquisition. There's real consumer choice and the illusion of choice that we presently have (one of the posts before this does a great job of who really owns whom in the cellular market).

T-Mo USA was not a money pit: it had flat revenue, but was still profitable. DT wasn't thrilled with this, but by no means were they losing money.

I'm glad you're happy with AT&T in AZ, but the two places I do business, the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, have been an AT&T disaster area.

Do your home work.
4 of the last 5 years, T-Mo USA has lost money and subscribers.
DT has been looking for a buyer for a while now.

2010, T-Mo had a net loss of over 50k subscribers for the year while Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have all had net gains.

As for the regulatory issues, even AT&T said they would not have pursued it if they didn't think it would fly.
AT&T may have to divest some assets, but this will get the stamp of approval.

 

[gkarris]

Do your home work.
4 of the last 5 years, T-Mo USA has lost money and subscribers.
DT has been looking for a buyer for a while now.

2010, T-Mo had a net loss of over 50k subscribers for the year while Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have all had net gains.

As for the regulatory issues, even AT&T said they would not have pursued it if they didn't think it would fly.
AT&T may have to divest some assets, but this will get the stamp of approval.

I personally don't know why they would loose subscribers. I've had nothing but great service and signal with them.

Everyone I know who says "T-Mobile s**k*", I ask why... The answer is "because they do...."

(Most who say that have never used it nor know anyone that has.)

 

[3282868]

Do your home work.
4 of the last 5 years, T-Mo USA has lost money and subscribers.
DT has been looking for a buyer for a while now.

2010, T-Mo had a net loss of over 50k subscribers for the year while Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have all had net gains.

As for the regulatory issues, even AT&T said they would not have pursued it if they didn't think it would fly.
AT&T may have to divest some assets, but this will get the stamp of approval.

Yup, just like they got a rubber stamp of approval for warrantless wire taps and handing the government information on its consumers.

Of course they'll get approved, it's one step closer to less competition, increased rates for the same service, and more control over the information and data. Why did our government break up MaBell? Why aren't they looking into this possible monopoly? Perhaps because communications and the internet were a pipedream then and times have changed. Information is the new black gold my friends. Welcome to the "United States of America, Inc".

 

[Macboy Pro]

AT&T is getting married to T-Mobile. There will be no reception afterwards

 

[beany boy]

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)

What will happen to the hot T-mobile girl?

Maybe she could get together with Alltell Chad.

 

[objc]

I personally don't know why they would loose subscribers. I've had nothing but great service and signal with them.

Everyone I know who says "T-Mobile s**k*", I ask why... The answer is "because they do...."

(Most who say that have never used it nor know anyone that has.)

This is what you call marketing. These companies could get you to believe the Earth is flat. Why do we Americans drink all this sugar water (I used to)? Marketing. What's with the shiny new mobile phone obsession? Marketing. New cars when the old works fine? It's all marketing. Stop watching TV and you start coming out of trance.

 

[objc]

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)



Maybe she could get together with Alltell Chad.

Bring back Chad! And the Dell dude!

 

[Apple 26.2]

Less competition, higher rates... awesome.

:ugh:

 

[geniusj]

Dunno what it means for T-Mobile users, but it could mean the end of that BS 500MB cap on data that they recently slapped into place on new contracts.

500MB cap? Did you just make that up? T-Mobile USA has no such cap. There is a 5GB "cap" of sorts. When you hit it, your data rate gets throttled down to ~EDGE for the remainder of the billing cycle.

 

[thewill586]

I hope the FCC makes these demands (instead of asset divesture) on behalf of consumers to let the merger go through

1. No separate charge for tethering, texting, or any other data related feature that can't be covered under the internet plan

2. No phone locking

3. No contracts. Phone costs can be amortized monthly with a reasonable interest and with no pre-payment penalty

4. Free "Roll-over" data feature

 

[Blair230]

I personally don't know why they would loose subscribers. I've had nothing but great service and signal with them.

Everyone I know who says "T-Mobile s**k*", I ask why... The answer is "because they do...."

(Most who say that have never used it nor know anyone that has.)

I can tell you why I would have been leaving t mobile once my contract is up. The short version- I had been with them for 5 years and was happy. My fiancee (girlfriend at the time) even left verizon and went with them because of the Fav 5 option, and would be cheaper for her since we talked so much. Then once we moved in together, I renewed my contract again and got a family plan so we would be under one bill.

For 4 months, Tmobile screwed up my bill. From getting false information from 3 different reps (on 3 different calls- and 2 reps were "managers") to receiving bills of over $1000, I finally had enough. It is now 5 months later, numerous phone calls of aggravation done and over with, it now appears my bill is correct (at least it has been for last month and this month). But the damage has been done and once my contract is up...it would be goodbye. Now I'll wait to see what happens with this..but I wanted you to know that there are reasons MANY people leave Tmobile!

 

[rdowns]

I hope the FCC makes these demands (instead of asset divesture) on behalf of consumers to let the merger go through

1. No separate charge for tethering, texting, or any other data related feature that can't be covered under the internet plan

2. No phone locking

3. No contracts. Phone costs can be amortized monthly with a reasonable interest and with no pre-payment penalty

4. Free "Roll-over" data feature

Never happen in the United States of America, Inc.

 

[tigres]

Never happen in the United States of America, Inc.

This.

We still pay in and out text and calls. Only country correct?

 

[geniusj]

This.

We still pay in and out text and calls. Only country correct?

We're also one of the only countries where calls to cell phones are billed the same as calls to landlines from the caller's perspective. I think this fact used to balance everything out. Basically the burden when from the caller to the callee in the US, whereas elsewhere it was always on the caller. Now there are less and less landlines, however, so I don't think it balances out as well anymore.

 

[theelysium]

Never happen in the United States of America, Inc.

AWW AWW AWW!

It just may happen with the communist Oboma regime in the White house...

 

[DakotaGuy]

What is their to gain by buying Sprint except bad debt and Nextel ?

About 48 million more customers which would make them about equal or a little larger in size then the combined AT&T-T-mobile empire.

 

[3282868]

AWW AWW AWW!

It just may happen with the communist Oboma regime in the White house...

Nah, this has been going on for years beyond party lines. Personally, as an ex-Democrat (socially liberal, fiscally conservative but against our foreign/energy policy and military spending), I've jumped ship. A lot of ex-Pat's these days... a lot...

 

[nateo200]

Their were many here who said AT&T was in trouble because Verizon got the Iphone. They sound like fools now.

Agreed. It was the equivelent of the week kid saying "I don't get mad but when I do I really beat people up!!!!" Yeah ok kid.. regardless of the past I think its pretty cool that two carriers in the US have it now thank God.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said one of the goals of the acquisition would be to move T-Mobile customers to smart phones, which have higher monthly fees. AT&T "will look hard" at keeping T-Mobile's no-contract plans, he said.

F•ck. You.

Agree 100%. The fact that he addressed that with maybe means hes going to burn everything he just said he would "look at".

There will be concessions made to make the feds happy. I don't have as much of a worry about prices as other people do because the concessions could even include providing cheap access for MVNOs or, even better, opening of spectrum and tower sites for a new GSM provider.

MVNOs...oh gawd...

I hope the FCC makes these demands (instead of asset divesture) on behalf of consumers to let the merger go through

1. No separate charge for tethering, texting, or any other data related feature that can't be covered under the internet plan
This is a highly debated topic. In my opinion it is the equivelent of abortion when it comes to mobile data with cellphones. I'm not sure how far out the FCC would be stepping out of line with that would but I would think pretty far, I think tethering should be free personally and my argument is that data is ****** data and that tethering is not a service but a feature and AT&T and verizon need to get there grimmey hands out of phone features. If you disagree than you might as well welcome V-cast, paid verizon gps and other BS that carriers do to try and make them seam like a giant pipe of 1s and 0s which is exactly what I want and what everyone else on here probably wants.


2. No phone locking
Absolutely. This should be banned, again I'm no law expert but this practice just seams like it violates something. Especially when you are done with the contract, the device does not belong to AT&T in anyway and thus should be unlocked if requested. See the EU model for well everything since it kicks the USA's model by far.

3. No contracts. Phone costs can be amortized monthly with a reasonable interest and with no pre-payment penalty.
Doubt this will happen. That is really up to the carrier and while I hate contracts with a passion I think they are good for business maybe not for us but for the carriers which is one thing they need to keep to be happy, predict revenue, ect.

4. Free "Roll-over" data feature
In my opinion this is completely up to the carrier. If the FCC manadated this they would be overstepping there power and be WAYYYY to liberal.

Comments in bold

 

[ten-oak-druid]

The first real smart phone changed the playing field.

How the iPhone Led to the Sale of T-Mobile USA
BY KEVIN O'BRIEN, NYT
MARCH 21, 2011

"...


But after the iPhone went on sale, sold exclusively at first by AT&T in the United States, T-Mobile USA began to lose its most lucrative customers, those on fixed monthly plans, who defected to its larger American rivals — AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which began selling the iPhone in February.

The percentage of T-Mobile USA’s contract customers fell to 78.3 percent in 2010 from 85 percent in 2006, according to the company’s annual reports. During 2010 alone, T-Mobile USA said it lost 390,000 contract customers to rivals.

“The iPhone effect cannot be underestimated in this decision,” said Theo Kitz, an analyst at Merck Finck, a private bank in Munich. “Without being able to sell the iPhone, T-Mobile was in an unsustainable position and T-Mobile USA became a problem child.”

..."

 

[noodlelegs]

This is what you call marketing. These companies could get you to believe the Earth is flat. Why do we Americans drink all this sugar water (I used to)? Marketing. What's with the shiny new mobile phone obsession? Marketing. New cars when the old works fine? It's all marketing. Stop watching TV and you start coming out of trance.

Stop posting on macrumors and come out of your trance. Come on man, if you weren't the slightest bit obsessed with Apple, you wouldn't be a regular macrumors poster, would you?

 

[theelysium]

Stop posting on macrumors and come out of your trance. Come on man, if you weren't the slightest bit obsessed with Apple, you wouldn't be a regular macrumors poster, would you?

You tell him! Kickem in da b a l l s!

 

[thewill586]

Originally Posted by thewill586
I hope the FCC makes these demands (instead of asset divesture) on behalf of consumers to let the merger go through

1. No separate charge for tethering, texting, or any other data related feature that can't be covered under the internet plan
This is a highly debated topic. In my opinion it is the equivelent of abortion when it comes to mobile data with cellphones. I'm not sure how far out the FCC would be stepping out of line with that would but I would think pretty far, I think tethering should be free personally and my argument is that data is ****** data and that tethering is not a service but a feature and AT&T and verizon need to get there grimmey hands out of phone features. If you disagree than you might as well welcome V-cast, paid verizon gps and other BS that carriers do to try and make them seam like a giant pipe of 1s and 0s which is exactly what I want and what everyone else on here probably wants.
The FCC is all powerful and can make any demands they want. If ATT doesn't like it, then they can take a hike.

2. No phone locking
Absolutely. This should be banned, again I'm no law expert but this practice just seams like it violates something. Especially when you are done with the contract, the device does not belong to AT&T in anyway and thus should be unlocked if requested. See the EU model for well everything since it kicks the USA's model by far.There is no law being broken in the US. In other countries, locking is illegal.

3. No contracts. Phone costs can be amortized monthly with a reasonable interest and with no pre-payment penalty.
Doubt this will happen. That is really up to the carrier and while I hate contracts with a passion I think they are good for business maybe not for us but for the carriers which is one thing they need to keep to be happy, predict revenue, ect.ATT shouldn't be concerned about defections if they represent the best value. There is a $25 or whatever it is start-up charge to prevent people from switching every month.

4. Free "Roll-over" data feature
In my opinion this is completely up to the carrier. If the FCC manadated this they would be overstepping there power and be WAYYYY to liberal.Lol. I just threw this idea out there as a play on rollover minutes. Imagine ATT wiggle on that one. FCC to ATT: "Why are consumers allowed to save the minutes they don't use but not afforded the benefit for data?



Comments in bold

Comments in italic

 

[srxtr]

AT&T-Mobile

Next up: Verizoprint

Sprizon!

 

[tbluhp]

About how early on did ATT/T-mobile know about this buyout before it was announced to the public yesterday? I'M sure bot att and t-mobile were not working on a Sunday?

 

[ghostlyorb]

And then there were three...

So are they doing it to get TMob's 4G infrastructure?

pretty much...