AT&T Buys T-Mobile

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.9to5mac.com/56978/damn-att-just-bought-t-mobile-usa/' target='_blank'>http://www.9to5mac.com/56978/damn-a...t-t-mobile-usa/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Wow.</em></p><p><em>And then there were 3 big US mobile players. The move would make AT&amp;T-Mobile, the joint venture, a monopoly for GSM/EDGE/HSPA+ phones in the US. It would also create the largest US carrier with 130 million subscribers blowing away Verizon's 90+ Million."</em></p><p><img height="400" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1300687136.usr105634.jpg" style="margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px;" width="400" /></p><p>Interesting news to say the least. This was released over the weekend, and the proposal is valued at $39 billion. Any bets on if it will be accepted or will the Justice Department and the FCC deem it too much and deny it? One plus of course is that current T-Mobile customers would be able to get the iPhone. What are your thoughts?</p>

[Vincent Ferrari]

They'll approve it because they have to. T-Mobile needs a buyer to survive (and by survive, I mean live on in any capacity) and denying the deal means T-Mobile goes out of business, AT&T buys all the liquidated assets, and the same thing happens anyway.

This deal is going to take at least a year to get done, so nothing will happen immediately. Also, just because the two are playing footsies and both on GSM networks doesn't mean phones will play nice together; they're completely different technologies and frequencies, although AT&T is probably going LTE. T-Mobile, at least to us, has said that LTE is overhyped ******** and that their HSPA plus network can turn on bandwidth at will.

Who knows.

Some people just see GSM and go "Look! They just put all their phones together and it all works!" Yeah, no. Not exactly. It's going to be interesting to see what ends up happening as far as what's left, what's axed, and what the final company looks like. My prediction is that I wouldn't expect much T-Mobile to be left in the final entity, whatever it comes to be called. For AT&T, this is an infrastructure buy, plain and simple.

I could be wrong, but if I am, I'm not very wrong.

[The Yaz]

I agree T-Mobile was going to end up in some sort of deal, whether with AT&T or Sprint. I'm sure the deal will be finalized, but I was more interested in the fact that AT&T also will aquire some assets outside of the US as well.

Maybe they will be able to offer cheaper international roaming to its business customers...

As for T-Mobile, I hope AT&T keeps some of their structure together and promote them for the teens and first time buyers. Simple and relatively cheap plans that would allow you to later upgrade to higher end smartphones while maintaining your account and number "within the family".

We'll see...

[Brad Adrian]

Maybe they will be able to offer cheaper international roaming to its business customers...

Right, because if it's one thing we've seen when the number of competitors decreases, it's reduced prices.:D

[lexden]

Another example of US-bias on this site. I believe AT&T have bought T-Mobile US only. Other T-Mobile companies not affected especially since Orange and T-Mobile in the UK have recently merged.

[encece]

Couldnt they Phase into it like they phased out TDMA? Keep both GSM band sets and gradually move over to one set or a merged set.
Phase 1) Keep what you have and work/pay as if nothing happened.
Phase 2) Change the name to a unified name: AT&T&Tmo
Phase 3a) All new phones will be 850/1900 band*
Phase 3b) All new phones are quad band 850/900/1800/1900*
Phase 4) Set cutoff date to hand in old phones

*not sure if I remember the frequencies correctly

[Vincent Ferrari]

Another example of US-bias on this site. I believe AT&T have bought T-Mobile US only. Other T-Mobile companies not affected especially since Orange and T-Mobile in the UK have recently merged.

Aside from complaining about the content of threads, do you contribute anything of value, ever? A quick look at your past 8 posts shows 3 of them complaining. 2 of them about this site and it's perceived US bias, and another complaining about a thread on PocketPC Thoughts from 2002 that you didn't appreciate because it wasn't germaine to the title of the site.

Ok.

We get it.

Honestly, for your information, we don't refer to T-Mobile in the United States as T-Mobile USA; it's just T-Mobile. Everyone in the United States understands that when talking about T-Mobile, we're talking about T-Mobile USA. Is that American-Centric? Sure, but I'd be willing to bet that a good majority of people on this very site are either American or Canadian and they understand that. That's the largest part of the audience.

Considering almost half of your 8 posts in the last 9 years have been complaining about something, maybe you could rein it in a bit and just read the news for what it is rather than complaining about how off topic it is or who it's relevant to?

Or even better; since you seem to think there's so much going on around the world that's being missed by the folks here, why don't you contribute? It takes the same amount of energy as a complaint and is a hell of a lot more productive.

[lexden]

I am commenting on the news section of this site which is written by a comparatively small number of writers. I don't see how the number of posts I have or have not made invalidates my comments. If I had written to a newspaper I would not expect the lack of previous letters to that paper to invalidate my views. My comment is no less valid whether I had made no previous comments or hundreds.

As for your response that everyone in the US knows T Mobile US as T Mobile, that is exactly my point. Everyone in the UK knows T Mobile UK as T Mobile so the heading is misleading to us here (and in other places around the world I would guess). I would suggest you look no farther than Windows Phone Thoughts where the heading to a similar article is "Apple Buys T-Mobile US".

All of this is a small point in the general sphere of things, but maybe you could expand the number of writers from elsewhere in the globe. Pocket PC Thoughts used to have a number of contributors writing the lead articles who were geographically spread.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I am commenting on the news section of this site which is written by a comparatively small number of writers. I don't see how the number of posts I have or have not made invalidates my comments. If I had written to a newspaper I would not expect the lack of previous letters to that paper to invalidate my views. My comment is no less valid whether I had made no previous comments or hundreds.

It is when you contribute nothing of substance except for complaints. It speaks volumes about your contribution to the community, that's for sure.

As for your response that everyone in the US knows T Mobile US as T Mobile, that is exactly my point. Everyone in the UK knows T Mobile UK as T Mobile so the heading is misleading to us here (and in other places around the world I would guess). I would suggest you look no farther than Windows Phone Thoughts where the heading to a similar article is "Apple Buys T-Mobile US".


In the United States, it's not called T-Mobile USA, it's called T-Mobile. No one in the US calls us T-Mobile USA. Hell, T-Mobile doesn't even call themselves T-Mobile USA unless they're filing something for their business (watch a commercial or two from the US; they don't say "T-Mobile USA" in the commercials any more than Vodafone calls themselves Vodafone UK). T-Mobile USA is the formal name of the company. No store is branded that way. No commercial is branded that way. The thousands of phones I watch go out of my warehouse everyday do not say "T-Mobile USA," they say "T-Mobile." It's not a big stretch to understand why someone in the US wouldn't refer to them by their formal legal name when you consider that T-Mobile themselves don't do it.

All of this is a small point in the general sphere of things, but maybe you could expand the number of writers from elsewhere in the globe. Pocket PC Thoughts used to have a number of contributors writing the lead articles who were geographically spread.

Maybe you should stop complaining and start writing? Apple Thoughts has made numerous posts asking for contributing editors. Instead of panning the geographic diversity of the staff, why don't you join it and expand that diversity?

Oh, wait; that would require action instead of complaining on a board and I just know that isn't going to happen.

[encece]

I like turtles! :D