AT&T buys T-mobile

[Jenky]

AT&T Buys T-Mobile: Great For Them, Bad For You
By Sascha Segan

AT&T just announced it will buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. If the transaction gets approved by the government and closes in a year as planned, it will create the nation's largest wireless carrier by far.
While this is great news for both companies, it's an awful idea for consumers - and I desperately hope the US antitrust authorities rake this merger over the coals.

An AT&T/T-Mobile merger at least makes more sense than the silly T-Mobile/Sprint idea which was being bandied about. Both carriers use the same technologies: GSM, HSPA+ and LTE. While they're on different frequency bands, radios which use all of the relevant bands are becoming easier to build.
The merger neatly solves T-Mobile's long-term problem of not having enough spectrum for LTE, the 4G technology which will soon be a global standard. It gives T-Mobile's struggling parent, Deutsche Telekom, a gigantic cash infusion. And it lets AT&T once again position itself as the number-one carrier against Verizon Wireless, which leapfrogged AT&T technologically this year with Verizon's 4G LTE launch.

AT&T is ahead of T-Mobile on building LTE. T-Mobile is far ahead of AT&T on building HSPA+, a intermediate 4G technology that fits right between the carriers' existing 3G networks and LTE. Together, they could have a smooth and powerful nationwide network.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382267,00.asp

 

[Yeagermeister]

Mark another cell company off my list

 

[Cowboy Brian]

So what's left, AT&T Verizon sprint and metropcs?

 

[Yeagermeister]

So what's left, AT&T Verizon sprint and metropcs?

Cellular South in my neck of the woods

 

[VietCowboy]

I've got Sprint because it is so cheap with great benefits. I'm considering switching to a monthly pay as you go though, so we'll see. With all the cheap-o plans like Page Plus for $30/month (cheaper if you buy it from a place that discounts it) for 1200 minutes, 2000 texts, and 100MB of data, hopefully this merger won't affect prices.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I'm perfectly happy with Verizon. Had my cell with them for over 10 years.

 

[Hostile]

I am completely unaware why this is bad for consumers.

 

[theogt]

I am completely unaware why this is bad for consumers.

It'll have positive and negative impacts. On the whole, though, I prefer competition to drive down prices.

 

[notherbob]

I don't have a cell phone so I don't know about AT&T's rates but if they are as high as their LD rates, I won't be getting anything that runs on AT&T.

I used AT&T as my LD carrier for years because they were an American company but I became fed up with their increasing rates and with their billing me for all kinds of tariffs, taxes and misc. things that just seemed to be made up. When I switched from them to my local county co-op for LD service my number of calls didn't change but my monthly bill decreased by about 66%.

To add insult to injury they kept billing me for services long after the date of termination and I finally got them to quit billing me for unrendered services and give me a credit, they then turned it over to a collection agency that hounded me for two years even though I had settled with them and nothing more was owed.

I am not of a mind to do business with them any more.

Do their cells phone bills contain all kinds of misc. charges, tariffs, taxes, etc?

Does Verizon have similar add-ons to their basic billings?

Our local county co-op doesn't.

 

[Yeagermeister]

I don't have a cell phone so I don't know about AT&T's rates but if they are as high as their LD rates, I won't be getting anything that runs on AT&T.

I used AT&T as my LD carrier for years because they were an American company but I became fed up with their increasing rates and with their billing me for all kinds of tariffs, taxes and misc. things that just seemed to be made up. When I switched from them to my local county co-op for LD service my number of calls didn't change but my monthly bill decreased by about 66%.

To add insult to injury they kept billing me for services long after the date of termination and I finally got them to quit billing me for unrendered services and give me a credit, they then turned it over to a collection agency that hounded me for two years even though I had settled with them and nothing more was owed.

I am not of a mind to do business with them any more.

Do their cells phone bills contain all kinds of misc. charges, tariffs, taxes, etc?

Does Verizon have similar add-ons to their basic billings?

Our local county co-op doesn't.

Oh yes....I never had a problem with their cell service but their billing drove me away.

 

[Bigdog]

I have AT&T and never had any problems with them. When I dispute a bill, they usually are very courteous and give me credit. I actually save a lot of money by bundling all my tech stuff together.

 

[casmith07]

Cricket, Clear, a few others.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I've been with T-Mobile since 1999. (when it was still VoiceStream) Their service was pretty good when I lived in Texas. (at least there areas I was in) When I moved to NY the service was very spotty. While the phones work in most places now, the data services are still spotty. When I do have data services, it's probably a 50/50 split between EDGE and G3 service.

The only reason we've stayed with T-Mobile is my wife is a huge Sidekick fan. On top of that, they are pretty much the cheapest off all the major carriers.

I'm guessing once this takeover is complete, that won't be the case anymore.

 

[notherbob]

Let's face it. AT&T got the 39 billion to buy T-mobile buy overcharging their customers who voluntarily paid their excessive fees. The 39 billion was money they made in excess of their obviously high overhead (all those TV and other media ads) and the dividends to their millions of stockholders. That's capitalism.

I quit being one of those people voluntarily paying AT&T the excess money they use to acquire their competitors. That, too, is capitalism at work.

It's all about people exercising their options, once they discover what their options really are.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Let's face it. AT&T got the 39 billion to buy T-mobile buy overcharging their customers who voluntarily paid their excessive fees. The 39 billion was money they made in excess of their obviously high overhead (all those TV and other media ads) and the dividends to their millions of stockholders. That's capitalism.

I quit being one of those people voluntarily paying AT&T the excess money they use to acquire their competitors. That, too, is capitalism at work.

It's all about people exercising their options, once they discover what their options really are.

AT&T got $39B from people overpaying for iPhones and their overpriced iPhone services. Same way Apple gets tons of cash. People blindly overpay for it.

 

[CliffnDallas]

I've been with T-Mobile for over ten years
When my contact expires I will be changing carriers. I hate to see them taken over by Satan.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

AT&T got $39B from people overpaying for iPhones and their overpriced iPhone services. Same way Apple gets tons of cash. People blindly overpay for it.

:laugh2: Steve Jobs really is in your head.

A mouse farts and you must think it was a product of Steve Jobs making him fart somehow.

Seriously dude...you need help with your obsession.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I've been with T-Mobile for over ten years
When my contact expires I will be changing carriers. I hate to see them taken over by Satan.

So the sky really is falling now? :

 

[casmith07]

What this does is extend better coverage to T-Mobile's users, while extending better HSPA+ coverage to AT&T users; also, T-Mobile was lagging far behind on development and rollout of LTE, so this benefits those users as well.

It's not the best for consumers, because the fewer the options the more likely pricing is to get even further out of control. I would have rather seen AT&T spend $39B to better develop their current network for better indoor and underground signal propagation and coverage of dead zones, but that's just me.

 

[CliffnDallas]

So the sky really is falling now? :

It's getting there. Another sign of the end times. Like brown gravy on meatloaf.