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AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion

businesswire.com

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Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion

#21

Post by tptacek »

Legion wrote: post #17
greattypo wrote: post #5

From Friday's HN post "Confessions of an Apple Store Employee": "We usually have to tell them that if they unlock their iPhone, it won't work. That it's going to be like a $700 paperweight, and that the antenna will fry itself on T-Mobile. Of course, that's not true, but that's what we tell them." Wonder how quickly their tune on that last part will change..

The whole thing will change - because what GSM provider in the US are they going to worry about people unlocking and switching to? The release says this will "enhance [AT&T's] network capacity". That means T-Mobile isn't likely to exist as a separate thing that's just owned by AT&T. It's pretty certain to be rolled directly into AT&T. It's Cingular 2.0.

... which is probably a good thing, from an efficiency standpoint.

Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion

#24

Post by nerfhammer »

tptacek wrote: post #19
dres wrote: post #7

This is complete bullshit, and would give AT&T an effective monopoly on GSM based wireless communications in a number of key markets. I say we collectively work to lobby against this deal, as it will be bad for all of us who are based in the US and looking to do ANYTHING in mobile. Imagine if Apple had tried to get their iPhone AppStore arrangement in a single-GSM carrier world? It's 2011, folks. We can't let oppress…

Why do we care what the market share is for specific transmission technologies? The overall wireless market is extremely competitive.

20 cent text messages both ways is competitive?

Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion

#25

Post by abhiyerra »

cheald wrote: post #12

Ugh. This might finally get me to leave T-mobile. I left ATT after a horrible experience and vowed to never go back. I am not happy.

I just moved to Verizon from T-mobile yesterday after frustration with T-mobile's service. And I loathe AT&T.

The nice thing about T-mobile is it is/was the only company which charges less if you didn't have a contract.

Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion

#29

Post by dangrossman »

amock wrote: post #20
dres wrote: post #7

This is complete bullshit, and would give AT&T an effective monopoly on GSM based wireless communications in a number of key markets. I say we collectively work to lobby against this deal, as it will be bad for all of us who are based in the US and looking to do ANYTHING in mobile. Imagine if Apple had tried to get their iPhone AppStore arrangement in a single-GSM carrier world? It's 2011, folks. We can't let oppress…

Why does it matter that they're the only GSM provider? Why aren't other technologies competition?

It matters because it increases the switching cost for anyone that wants to go to a competitor. You can't bring your phone with you, so you MUST make an upfront commitment of either buying a phone or signing a 2 year contract to get the phone without an upfront cost. When there are multiple companies that provide the network type your phone uses, you can move between them at no cost.

Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion

#30

Post by cletus »

It's a natural fit for AT&T to buy T-Mobile. They both 3G GSM (UMTS) technology. T-Mobile is probably better in some key markets than AT&T, most notably New York (City).

The one issue with T-Mobile is it uses the fairly nonstandard 1870 MHz frequency. I don't know of any other carrier that does (anywhere). I assume this is because AT&T has the rights to the more common frequencies in the relevant markets? I wonder what technical and regulatory hurdles stand in their way for switching T-Mobile infrastructure to also do the "standard" frequencies.

Wireless really is a mess in the US. Europe and Australia have really benefited from choosing one technology (GSM). In the US you pick your carrier then pick your phone. Elsewhere you basically pick your phone then pick your carrier. Don't like you carrier? Swap your SIM. Problem solved. The US really suffers (from the consumer point of view) by this lack of carrier mobility.

It's my theory that US wireless is so expensive at least in part due to it being the most balkanized market in the developed world (and possibly the entire world).

I was hoping LTE would help alleviate this problem as it seemed to be on the road map for 3 out of 4 of the carriers (all but Sprint). Now I guess it's still 2 of 3. Sprint is still the odd man out with the (basically failed) WiMax technology.

I can see this acquisition facing some serious regulatory and legislative scrutiny.

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