AT&T Acquires T-Mobile USA

[52brandon]

Well, this isn't good for Android, that's for sure...

...wait, what?

i dont get it either

^I just thought about this.

Is this gonna mean more phones for AT&T? Are the phone that were exclusive to T Mobile gonna still be available? Is this gonna mean less phones being made now that they are merging?

Not only Android, but the other mobile OS's (other than iOS) may be hurt by this.

There may be less models of phones, but there will still be the same amount of phones out there, thus shouldn't hurt the software development. Instead of 15 android models with 2.2 totaling 1.5MIL units, there will be 8 android models with 2.2 totaling 1.5MIL units (hypothetical numbers, just to illustrate a point)

 

[geoff5093]

I see it as good news for consumers, at least in one way. Perhaps some of the dead zones and call problems AT&T faced will be improved with the acquisition of T-Mobile's towers.

 

[frozty]

Still can't truly compare with Verizon, I hope Verizon does something amazing to shut these guys up. Never liked AT&T Or T-Mobile.

Real 4G Vs Fake 4G? Not to mention AT&T always lies on their commercials. (well used to, now they are the largest)

 

[UNC]

This merger will probably go thru, AT&T or VZW buying Sprint I can't ever see happening.

I wonder what happens to those TMo customers with unlimited data plans?

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.

Verizon and Sprint share towers for voice... Anywhere you have Sprint, you have Verizon. They have a roaming agreement.

 

[jntdroid]

Will this not be a great thing for current customers of both, especially from the spectrum/bandwidth standpoint? And from what I've read, Tmo will remain Tmo...

I wonder if the different frequencies will remain?

 

[Hugh Jass]

Does this mean Verizon goes back to being No.2? :icon_evil:

Yes, and if they don't smarten up and get some decent phones in their short term lineup, they'll be 3rd soon.

I don't know about that, like stated before, VZW has something AT&T doesn't have, which is a HUGE game changer.. LTE.. It's 4G vs. 3.5G and that speed gives VZW the edge IMO..

idk, what do you think?

Despite bad press and low consumer satisfaction for AT&T, they are now the nations largest carrier, which weights heavily in their marketing just as it did for Verizon, they can turn this around for themselves. AT&T now owns all of Tmobile's "4G" technology, making their time for roll-out of their own 4G very short. They are investing heavily in a sneak attack on Verizon while they still have the chance, and don't think for a second they're not going to pull out all the stops right now. It's quite easy to upgrade all of this tech that is going into the market right now for 4G and wouldn't take long before AT&T will be touting it's "Fastest AND largest network in the US" sales point if Verizon doesn't act quickly to do the same.

So Verizon had better tighten up before AT&T throws the book at them (IF they play their cards right.)

Unlike the others here, however...I don't think that AT&T acquiring Tmobile will translate into price gouging on our end, I think it's going to make competition between Verizon and AT&T tighter than ever.

Verizon does have one thing going for it right this second however, it didn't just blow a 39 Billion dollar load all over it's new girlfriend... which financially still keeps Verizon on top for some time now. Problem is that once that is no longer an issue, Verizon has no options in the way of acquiring anything it's self while AT&T will remain the largest carrier if the deal is approved later this year...it would never be approved by the US federal government for Verizon to acquire yet another company like Sprint due to antitrust laws, there just isn't enough valid competition and would create a duopoly instantly. So really Verizon can't get any bigger unless it attains new customers naturally, successful mergers are out of the question IMO...Which makes me wonder, what if Verizon were super sly and acquired Sprint RIGHT NOW, what would that mean? I think IF they did, I think they'd force the Govt to deny both of the companies from securing a merger ending in a stalemate of sorts, could be a good strategic move for Verizon if they feel this is threatening enough. Verizon has $7 billion in cash on the books and it generated $33 billion from operations last year alone. Sprint-Nextel has a $29 billion value–market value of stock plus debt...it could get real interesting in the coming weeks/months.

 

[kptphalkon]

Yuck I don't want to see sprint get sucked into VZW. They may share 2G(voice/texting) on the same towers but sprint doesn't even use ev-do rev. a

 

[Hugh Jass]

Still can't truly compare with Verizon, I hope Verizon does something amazing to shut these guys up. Never liked AT&T Or T-Mobile.

Real 4G Vs Fake 4G? Not to mention AT&T always lies on their commercials. (well used to, now they are the largest)

Actually there is no "REAL 4G". IMT-Advanced requirements stipulate setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbps for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbps for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users), which nobody is even close, it'll be some time before the LTE Advanced upgrade to LTE hopes to achieve these speeds and actually by definition become true to the 4G standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G#cite_note-0

 

[Hugh Jass]

Yuck I don't want to see sprint get sucked into VZW. They may share 2G(voice/texting) on the same towers but sprint doesn't even use ev-do rev. a

It's just a hypothetical for sure, I see Verizon acquiring them only to use them as a pawn to break up a AT&T from Tmobile if that's possible, and only then.

 

[jntdroid]

edit: wow i'm tired... didn't realize this had gone on to the next page, and even moreso didn't realize i had already posted, basically, the same comment/question on the prior page...

 

[DizzyThermal]

Verizon does have one thing going for it right this second however, it didn't just blow a 39 Billion dollar load all over it's new girlfriend... which financially still keeps Verizon on top for some time now. Problem is that once that is no longer an issue, Verizon has no options in the way of acquiring anything it's self while AT&T will remain the largest carrier if the deal is approved later this year...it would never be approved by the US federal government for Verizon to acquire yet another company like Sprint due to antitrust laws, there just isn't enough valid competition and would create a duopoly instantly. So really Verizon can't get any bigger unless it attains new customers naturally, successful mergers are out of the question IMO...Which makes me wonder, what if Verizon were super sly and acquired Sprint RIGHT NOW, what would that mean? I think IF they did, I think they'd force the Govt to deny both of the companies from securing a merger ending in a stalemate of sorts, could be a good strategic move for Verizon if they feel this is threatening enough. Verizon has $7 billion in cash on the books and it generated $33 billion from operations last year alone. Sprint-Nextel has a $29 billion value–market value of stock plus debt...it could get real interesting in the coming weeks/months.

Haha I like the girlfriend analogy, :rating10:

It's true though, AT&T is in the hole with money right now and I do believe DOJ would have a huge issue with both companies gobbling up the closest company they can to prove their e-:censored:

Oh well, I guess all we can really do is wait, (and stir the rumor pot!)

 

[Backnblack]

I doubt this will be approved by the regulators.

 

[dajogejr]

This will get approved, ATT greases the right political pockets. Always have.
This is a good thing, IMO...it will create more competition.

IF ATT changes pricing up on TMobile customers, they will defect.
TMob's phone lineup never was that strong. It'll be at least a year before we know any true/real outcome. I will say from my testing TMobile's "4G" is faster than ATT's current service, but still not as fast as LTE.

 

[kickyindahead]

Verizon does have one thing going for it right this second however, it didn't just blow a 39 Billion dollar load all over it's new girlfriend... which financially still keeps Verizon on top for some time now. Problem is that once that is no longer an issue, Verizon has no options in the way of acquiring anything it's self while AT&T will remain the largest carrier if the deal is approved later this year...it would never be approved by the US federal government for Verizon to acquire yet another company like Sprint due to antitrust laws, there just isn't enough valid competition and would create a duopoly instantly. So really Verizon can't get any bigger unless it attains new customers naturally, successful mergers are out of the question IMO...Which makes me wonder, what if Verizon were super sly and acquired Sprint RIGHT NOW, what would that mean? I think IF they did, I think they'd force the Govt to deny both of the companies from securing a merger ending in a stalemate of sorts, could be a good strategic move for Verizon if they feel this is threatening enough. Verizon has $7 billion in cash on the books and it generated $33 billion from operations last year alone. Sprint-Nextel has a $29 billion value–market value of stock plus debt...it could get real interesting in the coming weeks/months.

Haha I like the girlfriend analogy, :rating10:

It's true though, AT&T is in the hole with money right now and I do believe DOJ would have a huge issue with both companies gobbling up the closest company they can to prove their e-:censored:

Oh well, I guess all we can really do is wait, (and stir the rumor pot!)

You also cant forget about the high dollar load at&t spent on purchasing alltel just last year .. and this "merge" that has supposed to have happened with the two companies in our area 4 months ago... still hasnt. My daughter and her mother are still with alltel (soon to be at&t) and have yet received word that the merge is complete but in other parts of the country it has already happened. and when promised to have our plans grandfathered in they didnt include in the fine print that if we wanted to upgrade our phones .. we had to switch to an at&t rate. Hence the reason i switched to verizon .. not only did i save 4$ a month but the customer support i receive with verizon is a hell of a lot better than i hear from at&t customers.
IMO at&t is just trying to have a big d**K contest with verizon to see who can shell out the most money...

 

[takeshi]

AT&T-Mobile?
AT&T&T-Mobile?
Maybe they'll come up with a name that's not so double-faced, like Cingular?

SBC made a big effort to acquire AT&T and to rebrand itself as at&t. I doubt that will change.