• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

maximum360

Member
Sucks for us really. I was hoping that Sprint would be the one to do this in order to keep AT&T and Verizon in check. At least we'd have 3 big carries instead of 2.5.
 
S

SimleuqiR

Member
bob page said:
Wait, people are mad over this? T-Mobile was the most garbage service I've ever used, I couldn't even get signal in one story buildings. I switched to AT&T half a year ago and their service exists everywhere T-Mobile's didn't (which was everywhere not outside, it seems).

And to everyone saying this is terrible for competition, why? The two main powers were always Verizon and AT&T, and competition will only get fiercer between them now. T-Mobile was always a backseat observer.
Click to expand...

AT&T and Verizon will comfortably price match each other with plans and features (Price fixing). It's going to happen. You will see.

Two carriers means less competition - Specially in markets like NYC where T-mobile actually has amazing service.
 
S

Shed_a_Ninja

Banned
darth_vader_nooo_7675.jpeg
 
C

clav

Member
SimleuqiR said:
AT&T and Verizon will comfortably price match each other with plans and features (Price fixing). It's going to happen. You will see.

Two carriers means less competition - Specially in markets like NYC where T-mobile actually has amazing service.
Click to expand...
It's already happening. Too late for that call.
 
B

br0ken_shad0w

Member
bob page said:
And to everyone saying this is terrible for competition, why? The two main powers were always Verizon and AT&T, and competition will only get fiercer between them now. T-Mobile was always a backseat observer.
Click to expand...

It's quite sad you believe this.
 
C

clav

Member
br0ken_shad0w said:
It's quite sad you believe this.
Click to expand...
What's even sadder is a there are a number of people who share his opinion as well.

Ephemeris said:
0357_29qd.gif


There goes that awesome customer service. Time to ride this plan out into the sunset.
Click to expand...

Yep. That was T-Mobile's biggest pro.
 
L

LyleLanley

Banned
claviertekky said:
What's even sadder is a there are a number of people who share this opinion as well.
Click to expand...

It's sad that anyone can actually believe that getting rid of a competitor will make competition more fierce.
 
G

giga

Member
bob page said:
Wait, people are mad over this? T-Mobile was the most garbage service I've ever used, I couldn't even get signal in one story buildings. I switched to AT&T half a year ago and their service exists everywhere T-Mobile's didn't (which was everywhere not outside, it seems).

And to everyone saying this is terrible for competition, why? The two main powers were always Verizon and AT&T, and competition will only get fiercer between them now. T-Mobile was always a backseat observer.
Click to expand...
Holy shit.

fy3fup.gif


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duopoly


Ephemeris said:
[MG]http://h-2.abload.de/img/0357_29qd.gif[/IMG]

There goes that awesome customer service. Time to ride this plan out into the sunset.
Click to expand...
Yep. I'm hoping I stay grandfathered.
 
Burger

Burger

Member
Might have been posted, but the US (pop 300,000,000+) now has the same number of major wireless providers as New Zealand (pop 4,000,000+).
 
C

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
SimleuqiR said:
AT&T and Verizon will comfortably price match each other with plans and features (Price fixing). It's going to happen. You will see.

Two carriers means less competition - Specially in markets like NYC where T-mobile actually has amazing service.
Click to expand...

Are you insinuating that the two companies weren't, or couldn't price match each other before because of T-Mobile?! That's absurd.
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
VitaminApple said:
$39 billion and yet no money was spent on cell tower expansion...
Click to expand...

They did not buy T-mobile for the customers, they bought it for the expanded capacity. T-Mobile had long considered the market destined for 2 competitors anyway.
 
G

giga

Member
Charred Greyface said:
Is there a chance to get unlimited hspa+ on AT&T? I was looking at the instructions for the atrix but I'm not sure (not that the '4G' is even enabled on the atrix).
Click to expand...
Unlimited anything on AT&T will never happen. The iPhone 5 will probably be HSPA+ though since they have such a huge base now.
 
KingJ2002

KingJ2002

Member
Y2Kev said:
holy shit.
Click to expand...

first words to come out of my mouth.

althought this kind of screws things up for us price wise as T-Mobile was the cheapest... as an AT&T consumer i look forward to this because AT&T now has it's old legacy network again (which T-Mobile bought off of them 6-7 years ago)


better coverage, 4G in places i will probably never visit... im content with this..

looks like it's now:

1. AT&T
2. Verizon
3. Sprint
4. MetroPCS

I can see many people defecting over to Sprint & Metro PCS because of this... T-Mobile had some really affordable plans that AT&T won't match... Sprint's "Unlimited Everything" plans is the alternative option.
 
N

numble

Member
Zombie James said:
T-Mobile's on AWS, though. Adding AWS tower's isn't going to do much for people on non-AWS phones.

Right?
Click to expand...
They can stick their own antennas on the towers, instead of buying land and constructing towers to put antennas on (their press release claims it would take 5 years for them to build out that capacity if they didn't purchase T-Mobile). And it improves voice coverage automatically, since that's on the same frequencies, which is probably one of AT&T's biggest problems.
 
B

bob page

Member
SimleuqiR said:
AT&T and Verizon will comfortably price match each other with plans and features (Price fixing). It's going to happen. You will see.

Two carriers means less competition - Specially in markets like NYC where T-mobile actually has amazing service.
Click to expand...
T-Mobile has amazing service in NYC? Color me surprised. I lived in Brooklyn and worked in midtown and I never had acceptable service.
 
S

SimleuqiR

Member
Burger said:
Might have been posted, but the US (pop 300,000,000+) now has the same number of major wireless providers as New Zealand (pop 4,000,000+).
Click to expand...


The US Gov should regulate the airwaves - Just like in Europe were no one company has control of the spectrum. I want choice! This is bull!

The mobile industry is becoming just like the Cable industry, or probably even worse.

Goddamn corporations have the government in their pockets!!

Yes, even YOU GOOGLE! Don't be Evil my ass!

bob page said:
T-Mobile has amazing service in NYC? Color me surprised. I lived in Brooklyn and worked in midtown and I never had acceptable service.
Click to expand...

Well surprise my friend! I have never had issues with them, even in the city.

commish said:
Are you insinuating that the two companies weren't, or couldn't price match each other before because of T-Mobile?! That's absurd.
Click to expand...

No. I'm saying that now I can't have cheaper T-mobile plans as a choice (eventually I guess).

T-mobile has always been less expensive than AT&T - Not even the iPhone could make me switch.
 
F

Firestorm

Member
giga said:
Unlimited anything on AT&T will never happen. The iPhone 5 will probably be HSPA+ though since they have such a huge base now.
Click to expand...
I'd say that's more likely for iPhone 6 than anything. I don't think this would affect Apple's plans for iPhone 5 at all.
 
G

giga

Member
Firestorm said:
I'd say that's more likely for iPhone 6 than anything. I don't think this would affect Apple's plans for iPhone 5 at all.
Click to expand...
AT&T has already deployed HSPA+ though haven't they.
 
D

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
numble said:
They can stick their own antennas on the towers, instead of buying land and constructing towers to put antennas on (their press release claims it would take 5 years for them to build out that capacity if they didn't purchase T-Mobile). And it improves voice coverage automatically, since that's on the same frequencies, which is probably one of AT&T's biggest problems.
Click to expand...


Not sure how people don't realize this.
 
C

clav

Member
I think I can see why T-Mobile did this.

T-Mobile USA did not have a LTE plan. They were going to ride on HSPA+ for a while until they got their plans figured out. By selling out, T-Mobile hands the responsibilities to AT&T who will supposedly do the work on the GSM side of things, and I suppose that Deutsche sees no rebound in gaining a bigger foot hold in the marketshare, so this was a chance to exit the US.

However, at what cost will this be to the current customers? They're going to lose excellent customer service, something that has been lost these days among the tech growth, and competitive pricing.
 
F

Firestorm

Member
giga said:
AT&T has already deployed HSPA+ though haven't they.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but I don't really see Apple giving a shit either way =/ I'm actually not sure on the American situation but around the time the iPhone came out 3G was pretty prevalent wasn't it?
 
G

giga

Member
Firestorm said:
Yeah, but I don't really see Apple giving a shit either way =/ I'm actually not sure on the American situation but around the time the iPhone came out 3G was pretty prevalent wasn't it?
Click to expand...
I think the problem with putting 3G on the first iPhone was battery life.
 
KingJ2002

KingJ2002

Member
Also... this would mean in the short-term... AT&T iPhone would be the best pick over Verizon's

1. Better Call Quality thanks to more spectrum
2. Faster 3G Data Speeds
3. Bigger LTE Footprint for iPhone 6


from AT&T's perspective... this deal works out very well for them.

only thing AT&T has to worry about now is making sure their customers stay happy.
 
C

clav

Member
KingJ2002 said:
only thing AT&T has to worry about now is making sure their customers stay happy.
Click to expand...
Lowering prices?

Removing caps and metered messaging?

Giving cell phone minutes due to downtime?

Yeah that's not going to happen.
 
T

Talon

Member
Firestorm said:
Isn't that still a problem for HSPA+ phones or is that more with LTE? I'll admit I haven't been paying too much attention as I just want my HSPA+ phones regardless of battery life at this point!
Click to expand...
It's not like phone battery life is exactly phenomenal on 3G right now.
 
S

SimleuqiR

Member
Gizmodo said:
Basically, AT&T is going to be the biggest show in the game and the only GSM carrier in town. That's good for AT&T! But for us? Well, um, it depends. Things might not change for a while but since there is only one "little" carrier around in Sprint, the big boys in Verizon and AT&T can now do and charge what they want knowing there's no where for us to flee.

But more importantly, the little magenta engine that could is now gone. T-Mobile, though only a 4th place carrier, has done a lot of good things because of their back of the pack standing. They take chances on phones! Remember, they were the first carrier to introduce Android to the masses in the T-Mobile G1 (AT&T was the last). They have cheap plans! Their Fav 5 plan was a huge selling point that spurred other carriers to buckle up and offer better deals. They had really good customer service! No seriously, talking to T-Mobile service reps was not a disgusting experience in humanity.
Click to expand...

Sadly, this is not good news for consumers.

giga said:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4165/the-motorola-atrix-4g-preview/8
Click to expand...

Google: I think the biggest loser in this could be Google. In T-Mobile it has a great partner for its Android OS-based devices. Now the company will be beholden to two massive phone companies – Verizon and AT&T who are going to try and hijack Android to serve their own ends.
Click to expand...
The end of Vanilla Android! >_<
 
MidgarBlowedUp

MidgarBlowedUp

Member
Yeah I heard the news when I awoke this morning.

Let me break this down for those that don't understand the magnitude of this meltdown.

My T-Mobile Phone Bill = $79.99 after tax and fees.
What I get.
*Unlimited Nights and Weekends with Free Roaming
*Unlimited Data throttled after 5GB per month with Free Data Roaming on ATT's Edge
*Unlimited Messaging and Unlimited Messaging when Roaming
*Unlimited Voice Mail with Free Visual Voice Mail also when Roaming
*Unlimited Free calling 24/7 to any one of 5 numbers in the US and Canada (This can be landline or cellphone and roaming is free and I can change them once per month.)
*450 Anytime Minutes when I rarely use any of since I get unlimited on everything else.
*Tethering is an additional $15 per month but, Tmobile hasn't said anything to those of us that Tether anyway. After all using my phone for data is using my phone for data.

All this on a Rooted MyTouch 3G Slide running 3rd sense with cached Apps2SD card.
The only downside is coverage but, lately even that has been much better since Tmobile is forcing phones in limited range to drop to G (56k) signal. This greatly improves and extends voice reception and has completely ended the dropped calls I used to get. If I need Edge, I can't get 3G at my house, I just switch to Roaming and I'm on. I get 3G just about anywhere else except my house and school but, both of these places have wifi.

So just to recap... No other carrier in the US offers this at this price or at any price.
NO ONE!
 
L

Lo-Volt

Member
Fuck, really?

Not that I was particularly happy with T-Mobile, but boy, I didn't want this to happen. I never really cared for Verizon, and I went to T-Mobile to get away from AT&T.
 
A

Acid08

Banned
Still too expensive for me. My T-Mobile contract ends in a couple months and I think I'll move to Virgin Mobile. $40 a month for unlimited data, unlimited texting, and 1200 minutes is a damn good deal.
 
S

sleepykyo

Member
As someone who was using SBC for dsl then watched the rates go up (while the speed remained the same) after AT&T bought them, nooooooooo. What was the point of breaking up PacBell?

Also isn't AT&T about start putting dsl caps on in may?
 
SUPARSTARX

SUPARSTARX

Member
bob page said:
T-Mobile has amazing service in NYC? Color me surprised. I lived in Brooklyn and worked in midtown and I never had acceptable service.
Click to expand...
My friend and I have the Galaxy S, mine from Tmo and his from ATT. We work at hospitals and I always have better signal in heavy distorted areas. My reception is always better around Manhattan than his.
 
R

razgriz417

Member
This was just posted on TMoNews:

http://www.tmonews.com/2011/03/t-mobile-posts-question-answer-on-att-acquisition/

Following today’s announcement of AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile USA, T-Mobile has posted a Q&A answering several frequently asked questions. And one question a majority of you might be wondering is whether T-Mobile will be getting the iPhone.

All the answers to your questions below! Leave your thoughts in the comments!

An agreement was announced under which AT&T will acquire T-Mobile USA. The agreement is the first step in a process that, including regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed in approximately 12 months. Until then, we remain a separate company and continue to operate independently.

We know our customers, business partners and others may have many questions.

Here is some more information:

Will my service change?

There is no change in your service and we remain committed to ensuring you have the best experience possible experience using your T-Mobile USA products and services.

Will I now be billed by AT&T?

No, your billing remains exactly the same. T-Mobile USA continues to operate as an independent company. As always, you would receive advance notice to any changes to your services.

Why is T-Mobile USA doing this?

Bringing together these two world-class businesses will create significant benefits for customers. The merger will ensure the deployment of a robust 4G LTE network to 95% of the U.S. population, something neither company would achieve on its own. Also, because of our compatible networks and spectrum, the customers of T-Mobile USA and AT&T will experience improved voice and data service almost immediately after the networks are integrated.

Will T-Mobile USA’s quality be reduced?

No. In fact, the combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA will offer an even stronger service to customers. Until the acquisition is closed, we will work hard to maintain our position as the value leader with America’s largest 4G network.

If the acquisition closes, will I still be able to use my T-Mobile USA phone?

Yes. Your T-Mobile USA device will operate the same in the future as it does today.

Should I wait to sign-up with T-Mobile USA or upgrade my phone?

No, T-Mobile USA offers the latest wireless devices that are affordable on America’s Largest 4G Network and the combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA will mean even stronger service for our customers. Now is a great time to be a T-Mobile customer.

Is T-Mobile USA getting the iPhone?

T-Mobile USA remains an independent company. The acquisition is expected to be completed in approximately 12 months. We do not offer the iPhone. We offer cutting edge devices like the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and coming soon our new Sidekick 4G.

Will my rate plan change because of the acquisition?

We will honor all contracted plans that are entered into before the change of ownership.
Click to expand...

Don't know if it can be all taken at face value tho...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

AMD CFO blames lower console sales demand for muted financial results, strong demand for latest Ryzen mobile & desktop processor
2 3
119
6K
DaGwaphics replied
Xbox Explains Why It Doesn't Reveal Console Sales Anymore
2 3 4
174
13K
JohnnyFootball replied
[Bloomberg] Xbox Talking to Partners for Mobile Store, CEO Spencer Says
News Business 2
80
6K
Heisenberg007 replied
Warner Bros. Wants To Shift Away From "Volatile" AAA Console Games, Lean Into Free-To-Play And Mobile
Business Game Dev 2 3 4 5 6
265
12K
LarsQMorient replied
Twitch to shut down in Korea over ‘prohibitively expensive’ network fees
News Business 2
70
5K
Ansphn replied
Top Bottom