AT&T Acquires T-Mobile USA

[dajogejr]

I thought alltell was purchased by VZW?
ATT bought it from VZW?

 

[New2u]

I doubt this will be approved by the regulators.

Exactly my thoughts on the whole thing. The fact that it would make them the only GSM network does play a factor in the regulatory proceedings. Maybe just a small part but it will play a part none-the-less. IF and i do stress IF it makes it past the FCC proceedings and is allowed to happen, i'm sure that there will be a big burden that will have to be dished out to verizon or sprint. Just as when verizon merged, it had to sell/give away parts of itself that would make it a monopoly in that areas effected.

As the previous poster has stated, this might help AT&T but then again IMO it may hurt them. They can't even keep up with the system they have now, and we expect them to be able to keep up with a network that's even bigger? Yeah they might be able to implement their version of 4g faster but then again it's still not LTE speed. And this also opens the door to any person that has a contract with T-mobile that doesn't want to be with AT&T to jump ship to another company.

 

[New2u]

I thought alltell was purchased by VZW?
ATT bought it from VZW?

Alltel was purchased by verizon, well... at least most of it. Some of it had to go to AT&T so that it didn't create a monopoly in the area for verizon.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I doubt this will be approved by the regulators.

Exactly my thoughts on the whole thing. The fact that it would make them the only GSM network does play a factor in the regulatory proceedings. Maybe just a small part but it will play a part none-the-less. IF and i do stress IF it makes it past the FCC proceedings and is allowed to happen, i'm sure that there will be a big burden that will have to be dished out to verizon or sprint. Just as when verizon merged, it had to sell/give away parts of itself that would make it a monopoly in that areas effected.

As the previous poster has stated, this might help AT&T but then again IMO it may hurt them. They can't even keep up with the system they have now, and we expect them to be able to keep up with a network that's even bigger? Yeah they might be able to implement their version of 4g faster but then again it's still not LTE speed. And this also opens the door to any person that has a contract with T-mobile that doesn't want to be with AT&T to jump ship to another company.

Good question, hadn't thought of that. I can't really even come up with a decent counter argument to suggest you might be wrong because I don't know how much network technology availability would play into decision making, just too many variables to suggest one way or the other. Plot thickens.

As for all the questions on LTE speed, consider this...the price tag for HSPA+ for AT&T was less than $10 million to cover 250 million people, and that drop in the bucket, in theory, doubled their network speeds from 7mbps to a potential 14mbps. So even though it's a bit slower than LTE, they're saving gobbles of money in the short term while providing everyone on their entire network with HSPA+ in the NOW. This was a powerful move, don't shrug it off just yet.

 

[wingdo]

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.

Yes and T-Mobile has a roaming agreement with AT&T. What does that have to do with anything? This brings to AT&T nothing more than what a Sprint buyout would bring to VZW. In either case it's adds a little coverage that they do not have and it adds a boatload of towers which will be needed as more and more people start using up major cell bandwidth due to 4G.

 

[geoff5093]

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.

Yes and T-Mobile has a roaming agreement with AT&T. What does that have to do with anything? This brings to AT&T nothing more than what a Sprint buyout would bring to VZW. In either case it's adds a little coverage that they do not have and it adds a boatload of towers which will be needed as more and more people start using up major cell bandwidth due to 4G.

This is what I have never been clear on, are you only able to roam on certain towers? I had AT&T for a while but tried T-Mobile just for fun once, and they told me that I will roam on AT&T's towers when I am not near any of there's, however I would always get service with AT&T but never with T-Mobile.

 

[jntdroid]

This is what I have never been clear on, are you only able to roam on certain towers? I had AT&T for a while but tried T-Mobile just for fun once, and they told me that I will roam on AT&T's towers when I am not near any of there's, however I would always get service with AT&T but never with T-Mobile.

ditto on not quite getting this - especially with tmo and att being on different frequencies

 

[wingdo]

This is what I have never been clear on, are you only able to roam on certain towers? I had AT&T for a while but tried T-Mobile just for fun once, and they told me that I will roam on AT&T's towers when I am not near any of there's, however I would always get service with AT&T but never with T-Mobile.

Yes, you can only roam outside your coverage area. When I had T-Mo (still shuddering from those days), whenever I would visit family in Wisconsin I always was on AT&T's network (even said AT&T on the screen). If you are in a T-Mobile coverage area then you cannot roam over to AT&T.

 

[UNC]

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

Yes and T-Mobile has a roaming agreement with AT&T. What does that have to do with anything? This brings to AT&T nothing more than what a Sprint buyout would bring to VZW. In either case it's adds a little coverage that they do not have and it adds a boatload of towers which will be needed as more and more people start using up major cell bandwidth due to 4G.

This is what I have never been clear on, are you only able to roam on certain towers? I had AT&T for a while but tried T-Mobile just for fun once, and they told me that I will roam on AT&T's towers when I am not near any of there's, however I would always get service with AT&T but never with T-Mobile.

I'm not so sure that T-Mo and AT&T shared towers with a roaming agreement.... I know for certain Sprint and Verizon have a roaming agreement.

 

[geoff5093]

This is what I have never been clear on, are you only able to roam on certain towers? I had AT&T for a while but tried T-Mobile just for fun once, and they told me that I will roam on AT&T's towers when I am not near any of there's, however I would always get service with AT&T but never with T-Mobile.

Yes, you can only roam outside your coverage area. When I had T-Mo (still shuddering from those days), whenever I would visit family in Wisconsin I always was on AT&T's network (even said AT&T on the screen). If you are in a T-Mobile coverage area then you cannot roam over to AT&T.

When you say you can roam outside of your coverage area, is that their anticipated coverage area or actual coverage area? I ask because online maps are generally a bit generous with what they cover, and that wouldn't explain why I had 3-4 bars with AT&T EDGE but no service with T-Mobile in the same spot.

Yes and T-Mobile has a roaming agreement with AT&T. What does that have to do with anything? This brings to AT&T nothing more than what a Sprint buyout would bring to VZW. In either case it's adds a little coverage that they do not have and it adds a boatload of towers which will be needed as more and more people start using up major cell bandwidth due to 4G.

This is what I have never been clear on, are you only able to roam on certain towers? I had AT&T for a while but tried T-Mobile just for fun once, and they told me that I will roam on AT&T's towers when I am not near any of there's, however I would always get service with AT&T but never with T-Mobile.

I'm not so sure that T-Mo and AT&T shared towers with a roaming agreement.... I know for certain Sprint and Verizon have a roaming agreement.

If Sprint and Verizon have a roaming agreement, why does Sprint have considerably more dead zones? Even with roaming.

 

[kickyindahead]

I thought alltell was purchased by VZW?
ATT bought it from VZW?

Alltel was purchased by verizon, well... at least most of it. Some of it had to go to AT&T so that it didn't create a monopoly in the area for verizon.

this was the website i was sent to every time i tried to connect to my alltel account via the internet...

Welcome to AT&T

 

[hookbill]

Apologies if you've already seen this video. I thought is was appropriate for this thread:

[video=youtube;rsCp-1hgfxI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCp-1hgfxI&feature=player_embedded#at=13[/video]

 

[kickyindahead]

Apologies if you've already seen this video. I thought is was appropriate for this thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCp-1hgfxI&feature=player_embedded#at=13

haha .. lol... my cousin posted that on facebook this morning .. good way to start the day off with a laugh

 

[dfuser312553]

Apologies if you've already seen this video. I thought is was appropriate for this thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCp-1hgfxI&feature=player_embedded#at=13

I went through a lot of those renames on my old Ericsson that held max 100 contacts (baller!).

 

[mthorn79]

Don't understand why were Sprint shares are plummeting? I'm not market share guru but AT&T buying out T-mobile (essentially wiping out T-Mobile's unlimited data plan) means that Sprint & Verizon are the only mega player phone companies with unlimited data (MetroPCS & Virgin don't count, c'mon). So wouldn't this mean T-Mobile customers that dont' wanna get tied down with tiered data moving over to Sprint or Verizon?! I mean looking at it from a T-Mobile customer's point-of-view would seem to think that would be the result. If I wanted an iPhone I would certainly goto VZ for unlimited data alone not to mention the speeds of VZ's service, hell Sprint's WiMax is faster than AT&T's HSPA+ service!