Yes, it's subject to regulatory approval that is estimated to take ~12 months to complete. If the deal is rejected, I think I read that AT&T has to dish out loads of money and spectrum to T-Mobile as alimony payments.
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AT&T Acquires T-Mobile USA
- Thread starter Jaxidian
- Start date
Yes, it's subject to regulatory approval that is estimated to take ~12 months to complete. If the deal is rejected, I think I read that AT&T has to dish out loads of money and spectrum to T-Mobile as alimony payments.
VZW and AT&T already have 2/3 of the market (Sprint and TMo have the other 1/3, basically).
Sprint can be decent if you don't travel and happen to have good service in your area, but for the most part Sprint and TMo footprints and service are so pathetic that they don't really compete with the Big 2, anyway.
And at the end of the day, smartphone data plans are really not necessary (something like only 30-35% of the market has one). So the opportunity is to grow that base which will keep them from price gouging - you'd make a lot more money having 100% of users paying $20-$25 than you would 30% paying $40.
Sprint can be decent if you don't travel and happen to have good service in your area, but for the most part Sprint and TMo footprints and service are so pathetic that they don't really compete with the Big 2, anyway.
And at the end of the day, smartphone data plans are really not necessary (something like only 30-35% of the market has one). So the opportunity is to grow that base which will keep them from price gouging - you'd make a lot more money having 100% of users paying $20-$25 than you would 30% paying $40.
Yes, if it goes through at all, and it could take up to a year thru the gov't.
In related news, Knut, the polar bear has died (I believe he had T-Mobile):
Cuddly Catastrophe: Knut the Polar Bear Dies - TIME NewsFeed
R
RETG
Guest
It will not have a problem with the FCC. They are already using the correct buzz words...
"This helps achieve the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and President Obama’s goals to connect “every part of America to the digital age."
These are the same buzz words that Lightsquared used to get the FCC to allow it to set up a LTE network on the frequency next to L1 and let all existing GPS devices be damned. (It didn't hurt that Philip Falcone and his wife both donated up to $60K to the DNC.dancedroid) I wonder how much AT&T and T-mobile will be out in campaign contributions?:icon_ banana:
"This helps achieve the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and President Obama’s goals to connect “every part of America to the digital age."
These are the same buzz words that Lightsquared used to get the FCC to allow it to set up a LTE network on the frequency next to L1 and let all existing GPS devices be damned. (It didn't hurt that Philip Falcone and his wife both donated up to $60K to the DNC.dancedroid) I wonder how much AT&T and T-mobile will be out in campaign contributions?:icon_ banana:
This takes AT&T share up to @ 45%. Typically the DOJ doesn't raise an eyebrow until 60%+. However, given the national interest with cellular and that one other major player has 1/3 market share, they may have something to say.
Didn't VZW have to spin-off some assets after a merger in order for the DOJ to approve? Maybe that was landline business though.
Didn't VZW have to spin-off some assets after a merger in order for the DOJ to approve? Maybe that was landline business though.
DroidMastar2
Member
crazy, and not good for consumer pricing IMO. now vzw and at&t can gouge away
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Yup...
With only Sprint in the way, Verizon and AT&T are primed to set their own inflated prices as a cartel. This is great for their own businesses, but awful for the consumer. And whenever Sprint is bought out by one of the two, it will be the complete end to all competitive pricing.
In fact, you could see Sprint move to a higher price now that T-Mobile is out of the way. All the cheap options are gone, unless you want to go to Criket, and nobody is going to be doing that. AT&T and Verizon are very quickly monopolizing this market. Wouldn't be surprised to see SEC intervention within the next 5 years.
Sprint is going strong right now... and you have the option of metro pcs which is on the rise...
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Loooney2ns
Member
I guess she'll have to start wearing a blue dress instead!
IceAngel8381
Member
Those ATT vs. T-Mobile commercials have new meaning now. LOL
Why can you see AT&T buying T-Mo as going through but say a purchase of Sprint by VZW would not?
The sad part of this is that if T-Mo had a decent network to begin with, they would have a better subscriber base. How much of the country does T-Mobile cover where AT&T doesn't have coverage? I always thought Sprint / VZW made more sense as they are both CDMA for 3G, and in the areas where VZW doesn't have coverage, Sprint is already there.
I think in the long run, it's going to be AT&T and VZW as the two national carriers, with regional carriers gobbling up 15-20% of the rest of the market.
Maybe 45% share over all but almost 100% GSM. That could be something the regulators look at.
droid_mike
Member
Well, this isn't good for Android, that's for sure...