http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/20/atandt-agrees-to-buy-t-mobile-from-deutsche-telekom/

Now surpasses VZW as the nation's largest wireless carrier.

3/20/2011 2:42:02 PM

[/care]

3/20/2011 2:47:26 PM

This is actually a pretty big deal....I wonder how much more consolidation the industry can handle?
With this merger you now have AT&Tmobile, Verizon and a distance behind them Sprintel then a handful of regional
carriers. Will we ever get to the point where we only have one nationwide LTE carrier? Interesting times indeed.

3/20/2011 2:53:38 PM

^ I hope not. Personally, I miss the days of regional carriers. Yeah it probably sucked for the guys that travel all over the country for business, but for consumers it was great. Way back when I had Suncom, 2 lines with 1500 minutes, m2m, n&w and unlimited data (smart phone data) for both lines cost me ~$65 / month with taxes included, the only catch was that if I traveled outside of SC, NC, VA or GA, I needed to pick up a pre-paid sim with national coverage, or pay $texas roaming charges. You can't get that for anything less than $100 from any of the big 4 3 these days

3/20/2011 3:18:52 PM

wonder how this effects Google's Nexus line of phones. ATT doesn't seem to want to carry them subsidized

3/20/2011 3:28:36 PM

Saw this quote that made me raff in a Hacker News thread on this very subject:

Quote :

""My AT&T service has three (3) main features, call waiting, call forwarding, and call dropping. Of those, the third feature works best. Oh, and unrelenting robo-reminders. Those calls never drop and they always leave a message.""

3/20/2011 6:34:24 PM

break up the bells, let the bells merge and become a superpower, break up the bells again...

3/20/2011 7:03:00 PM

i hope this doesnt mean the end of the t-mo 4g girl

3/20/2011 7:21:15 PM

like ma bell i got the ill communication

3/20/2011 9:19:42 PM

3/20/2011 9:49:17 PM

I thought the only reason people went with TMoblie was to get away from ATT.

3/21/2011 7:09:51 AM

r.i.p. adorable t-mobile girl

3/21/2011 7:53:33 AM

oh boy, this will undoubtedly lead to lower higher prices and better the same shitty service!

3/21/2011 9:13:15 AM

lol. You knew it wouldn't be long before sprint complained

http://www.bgr.com/2011/03/21/sprint-voices-concern-over-proposed-att-t-mobile-merger/

Quote :

"“If approved, the merger would result in a wireless industry dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically-integrated companies that control almost 80% of the US wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete,” Sprint said. “The DOJ and the FCC must decide if this transaction is in the best interest of consumers and the US economy overall, and determine if innovation and robust competition would be impacted adversely and by this dramatic change in the structure of the industry.” A Verizon Wireless representative declined to comment."

3/21/2011 9:25:45 AM

the fed wont do shit because they're incompetent

3/21/2011 9:28:34 AM

THE FED BROKE UP THE BELL, YOU KNOW

3/21/2011 9:31:41 AM

screw Dan Hesse

3/21/2011 9:39:36 AM

http://money.cnn.com/

stocks are up. No body cares.

3/21/2011 1:06:41 PM

Sprint fell 15%.

3/21/2011 1:26:06 PM

Meh. I've been with Sprint for 7 years and not once have I had an issue that wasn't promptly resolved.

3/21/2011 1:38:45 PM

verizon will counter by buying sprint

3/21/2011 1:46:20 PM

Or Sprint buys USSC

3/21/2011 1:54:43 PM

probably both

3/21/2011 1:55:18 PM

Quote :

"verizon will counter by buying sprint"

that's one way to get into NASCAR.

3/21/2011 2:22:17 PM

Quote :

"I thought the only reason people went with TMoblie was to get away from ATT."

Yup, sucks for them. LOL

Wonder if T-mobile people can get out of their contracts with this merger without hassle. I'd be pissed if I was with T-mobile right now. I hate AT&T, both their land-line and wireless service sucks.

3/21/2011 2:25:35 PM

Per T-Mobile:

Quote :

"T-Mobile USA remains an independent company. The acquisition is expected to be completed in approximately 12 months. "

So they probably won't be able to get out of their current contracts, but chances are nothing much will change over the next few months anyway.

3/21/2011 2:33:41 PM

i just want an att dell venue pro. mergers seem like power plays for spectrum

3/21/2011 2:41:49 PM

AT&T didn't spend nearly enough cash to buy of spectrum from the DTV transition while Verizon was going gangbusters throwing fist fulls of money to lock down future expansion.

And who do we see whining about it now? I can't believe the FCC would let these guys merge without serious selloff on hardware and/or spectrum. T-Mo has nothing but large metro areas, att is not much better. Out in the sticks Verizon rules the roost, Sprint has "stand on the porch" coverage and ATT and T-Mo don't even connect. To anything. Hope you don't break down...

3/21/2011 5:33:30 PM

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/03/analysis-higher-prices-fewer-choices-once-att-swallows-t-mobile.ars

Quote :

"But it's the middle three "opportunities" that give us pause. Number two is "grow ARPU," or average revenue per user. Number three is "reduce churn." And number four is "expand margins." They could be recast as "you'll pay us more money each month, you won't leave, and we'll make more profit on each dollar you pay.""

3/21/2011 5:42:25 PM

i dislike this merger. talk about stifling competition.

[/verizon user]

3/21/2011 6:41:45 PM

i dislike this merger. talk about stifling competition.

[/AT&T user]

3/21/2011 7:26:18 PM

Yea I was fucking blown away today when I was looking at prices for a basic phone with text capability on prepaid how much those fuckers are now. I currently have a cellphone through VZW that I got as an indirect agent, so I have minutes/txt/etc. all for like $10/month. I wanted to switch out my phone and give my wife a prepaid phone to use, but the cheapest I could find would be to go with Cricket for $35/month. The prepaid options from Verizon were shit, with $30/month being the minimum. Yuck.

3/21/2011 7:39:35 PM

I'm really surprised like this. I was expecting Sprint to buy out T-Mobile so that they could better compete with the Verizon and AT&T. It would have been nice to see a stronger Sprint that would do a better job of keeping the two big boys on their toes.

3/21/2011 10:04:06 PM

Quote :

"I'm really surprised like this. I was expecting Sprint to buy out T-Mobile so that they could better compete with the Verizon and AT&T. "

Sprint is a CDMA carrier, T-Mobile is/was GSM... would make very little sense for them to combine in any way.

3/21/2011 11:31:31 PM

I want my LTE dammit.

3/22/2011 12:35:02 AM

NYT has article about how the iphone made tmobile do this. They started losing customers because people wanted the iphone, so merger was the only way to save them.

3/22/2011 12:39:30 AM

3/22/2011 1:09:27 AM

HAY GUIZE! Did you hear AT&T and T-Mobile are getting married? I hear that after the wedding, there will be no reception!

3/22/2011 7:21:35 AM

I too saw the fark headline, but it was so good it had to be spread to tww.

Quote :

"THE FED BROKE UP THE BELL, YOU KNOW"

Different times.

[Edited on March 22, 2011 at 8:08 AM. Reason : -]

3/22/2011 8:06:01 AM

now lets see if Verizon pulls a Roy Williams.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/us-verizonwireless-interview-idUSTRE72L0K820110322

Quote :

""We're not interested in Sprint. We don't need them," said Mead, speaking to Reuters ahead of the CTIA Wireless Conference."

3/22/2011 8:40:23 AM

[Edited on March 22, 2011 at 9:33 AM. Reason : n/m]

3/22/2011 9:32:18 AM

Quote :

"This is actually a pretty big deal....I wonder how much more consolidation the industry can handle? With this merger you now have AT&Tmobile, Verizon and a distance behind them Sprintel then a handful of regional carriers. Will we ever get to the point where we only have one nationwide LTE carrier? Interesting times indeed."

My thoughts exactly.


The government could have stopped this shit 6 or 7 years ago and diddnt.

In 2004 we had the following National Carriers

Verizon
Alltel
Sprint
Nextel
ATT
Cingular
T-mobile(maybe not, cant remember even without them we had 6)

The mergers do not serve a public purpose at all....in all cases except Nextel they use technology that can roam on other networks meaning customers were rarely without coverage, the companies had reciprocal roaming agreements that washed out the cost of roaming fees to the consumer.

We have seen a few huge mergers and in almost all those cases customers got the shit end of the stick.

ATT-Cingular - Service does not improve, all ATT customers in NC get divested to Suncom (horrible, service so bad the attorney general gets involved). Public has one less choice of wireless carrier.

Sprint-Nextel - Nextel is rated 2nd in customer satisfaction (Verizon is 1st) the year before the merger....the year after Sprint gobbles up Nextel the combined company is dead last in customer satisfaction by JD power. One of the best wireless carriers in the country no longer exists (tons of former Nexel employees are laid off) and sprint stock tanks, profitability tanks, the public has one less choice.

Verizon-Alltel - This one is not nearly as bad as the first two, customers still have good coverage and they actually get access to more products (4G rolled out faster and better phone selection)...the rate plans with Verizon cost more though. Still one less option for consumers, layoffs, etc.

What we are spiraling toward is having 3 or less HUGE national carriers, before we had 6 or 7. Sprint is now the special needs child of the wireless industry, if they had any money (they may in a few years) they would easily have an argument that they should be allowed to buy US cellular (good size regional carrier).

With each of the mergers the next company has a good argument they should be allowed another huge merger because they got shortchanged by the last competing one.

At this point any customer who does not want to pay to be part of the big 3 is stuck with some small prepaid carrier like Cricket or Metro PCS.

4/1/2011 10:00:12 AM

The question I have is: if some billionaire somewhere wanted to start a cell phone company today, could they?

4/1/2011 10:29:17 AM

Quote :

"Verizon-Alltel "

I thought Alltel went to AT&T?

4/1/2011 5:07:07 PM

^no

4/1/2011 6:34:20 PM

Verizon alltel was great... I was an alltel customer, and since got better options. The thing is while we had like 6 or 7 carriers there were regional limitations. Yes your phone worked nationwide, but alltel wasn't competing in certain areas, as the same with other companies. you really only had 4 optios or so, iirc.

Now you have the same 4 options everywhere. Soon to be three, and I don't know how much longer sprint could compete...

4/1/2011 9:51:11 PM

Quote :

"Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has already expressed his concerns about AT&T’s purchase of T-Mobile from Deutsche Telecom, but today Sprint officially announced its opposition to the deal in a press release. Sprint states that the transaction will create a carrier that’s roughly three times its size — in terms of revenue — and “reverse nearly three decades of actions by the U.S. government.” Sprint noted that AT&T and Verizon Wireless would dominate the U.S. wireless postpaid market and be firmly in control of the availability and price of key inputs, such as backhaul, should the deal go through. “Sprint urges the United States government to block this anti-competitive acquisition,” writes Sprint’s senior vice president of government affairs, Vonya McCann “This transaction will harm consumers and harm competition at a time when this country can least afford it.” If it’s any consolation to Sprint, one FCC official believes that the deal won’t be rubber stamped, and could be a “steep climb at least.” Hit the jump to read the full release. Sprint Opposes Proposed AT&T Acquisition of T-Mobile USA Transaction would reduce competition and harm consumers OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sprint Nextel [NYSE:S], the nation’s third largest wireless provider and a leader in advanced wireless broadband technologies, announced today its opposition to AT&T’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA. The transaction, which requires the approval of the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, and will likely spark a host of hearings in the U.S. Congress, would reverse nearly three decades of actions by the U.S. government and the courts that modernized and opened U.S. communications markets to competition. The wireless industry has sparked unprecedented levels of competition, innovation, job creation and investment for the American economy, all of which could be undone by this transaction. AT&T and Verizon are already by far the largest wireless providers. If approved, the proposed acquisition would create a combined company that would be almost three times the size of Sprint in terms of wireless revenue and would entrench AT&T’s and Verizon’s duopoly control over the wireless market. The wireless industry moving forward would be dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically integrated companies with unprecedented control over the U.S. wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs, such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete. “Sprint urges the United States government to block this anti-competitive acquisition,” said Vonya McCann, senior vice president, Government Affairs. “This transaction will harm consumers and harm competition at a time when this country can least afford it. As the first national carrier to roll out 4G services and handsets and the carrier that brought simple unlimited pricing to the marketplace, Sprint stands ready to compete in a truly dynamic marketplace. So on behalf of our customers, our industry and our country, Sprint will fight this attempt by AT&T to undo the progress of the past 25 years and create a new Ma Bell duopoly.” About Sprint Nextel Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 49.9 million customers at the end of 2010 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 6 in its 2010 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at http://www.sprint.com or http://www.facebook.com/sprint and http://www.twitter.com/sprint."

4/3/2011 12:44:54 AM

FCC chairman is wary of this merger, too. But he voted against one of the recent ones... maybe comcast/nbc-universal, and it was still approved.

4/3/2011 9:54:21 PM

what's the point of government interference here?

I mean this was done by the government:



and now, is being undone.

[Edited on April 4, 2011 at 7:06 AM. Reason : .]

4/4/2011 7:04:40 AM

You can file a comment on the issue if anyone is interested.

http://bit.ly/k3Wtyt

4/29/2011 4:04:53 PM