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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

#201

Post by MatthewPhillips »

jmspring wrote: post #37

For the longest time when AT&T bought Cingular, plans that were entered into under Cingular were allowed to continue under AT&T on the same terms. Given how long ago this was, I didn't have data, so I can't speak to what would have happened with a voice/data plan. However, I can see the same thing not happening with this deal. AT&T really is the antithesis of T-Mo in terms of pricing, flexibility, and customer servic…

They likely won't take away your plan (and if they tried you'd have the ability to terminate your contract). All carriers have a policy of grandfathering in existing plans when they change theirs (as they did, for example, when they eliminated unlimited data last year). Of course that means you can't get a new phone or change a plan details without submitting to the new terms. If you're willing to live with that, it can be beneficial. Some people are on 5 year old plans and paying $10 or less for unlimited data. Carriers know this, and put up with it because they know the vast majority of their customers are going to re-up the contract regularly.

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

#202

Post by drzaiusapelord »

plusbryan wrote: post #4

Oh crap. There goes my unlimited tethering.

Yep, there goes my PDAnet tethering. There goes the unsubsidized phone pricing for those of us who buy our own phones. There goes the $49 data-only plan. There goes the HSPA+ roll out since AT&T will probably stop this and just move to LTE.

Here comes added congestion from iphone users. Here comes a price increase (customers end up paying for most mergers in the end), etc. Hopefully by the time the deal goes through Verizon will have a full LTE roll-out and decent Android-based phones to take advantage of it.

I'm a little surprised this move is going to even take place. In markets with only a few providers, cell phone prices and caps are terrible. Take Canada for an example. Now the US will follow in Canada's footsteps.

I think the industry is set on killing competitive pricing. The dream of the mobile providers is to convince everyone that a $100-$150 monthly bill with 2+ year lock-ins is normal. Mobile data should be a commodity, not a premium service.

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

#203

Post by rue »

bjelkeman-again wrote: post #59
cletus wrote: post #30

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 wh…

> Wireless really is a mess in the US. Europe and Australia have really benefited from choosing one technology (GSM). How are pricing plans in the US when you are roaming beyond your state? I live in Sweden, where I have a decently priced data and call plan. However, as soon as I go outside of Sweden, which is a small country (9M people), I have to pay roaming charges. I don't mind so much the call charges, but they…

> However, as soon as I go outside of Sweden, which is a small country (9M people), I have to pay roaming charges.

This can be problematic for those always on the move (the US has an all-round advantage on domestic market size), but in addition to the 2007 and 2010 roaming regs, the EU is apparently looking at forcing more reasonable data roaming charges across the board.

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

#204

Post by rue »

ugh wrote: post #128
TillE wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is limited to Germany, but I had absolutely no problem buying an unlocked Android phone and putting in a prepaid SIM. There are at least a dozen major prepaid providers (resellers of the four networks, but mainly e-plus) offering rather cheap prices (I pay 15 Euro/month for 5GB of data). I can move between carriers at a whim, no contracts.

The majority of people in Germany probably buy subsidized and locked (for the duration of the contract) phones but it is no problem to just walk into your local Best Buy equivalent, buy any phone you like and get your favorite provider to send you a SIM (or buy one directly there). It's not even that much more expensive than getting a subsidized phone (over the lifetime of the contract).

A bit further north, the prices for phones are exactly the same whether over a contract or paid up front; I'm not sure if it's law or just convention. The monthly plan is really just used to lure in customers (and by customers in lieu of a more traditional loan to buy the phone).

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

#205

Post by js2 »

dagar wrote: post #176
js2 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. $100 for 1000 minutes with a 15% bonus on the next refill, 1 year expiration. For folks who hardly ever use their voice minutes, nothing else even comes close. Grrr. (Well, there's Virgin Mobile, but they have almost no network -- I think it's Sprint w/o any roaming onto Verizon.)

Actually at&t prepaid is about the same. $100, 10 cents/minute, 1 year expiration = 1000 minutes

No 15% bonus, text messaging is twice the cost, and I don't see any way to purchase just a SIM card a la T-Mobile:

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/Phones/cell-phone-detail.aspx?c...

It looks like the cheapest you can get in is with the $15 R225.

But, it's a lot better than what they had when I last shopped for prepaid.

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

#206

Post by IgorPartola »

maukdaddy wrote: post #107
bjelkeman-again wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wireless really is a mess in the US. Europe and Australia have really benefited from choosing one technology (GSM). How are pricing plans in the US when you are roaming beyond your state? I live in Sweden, where I have a decently priced data and call plan. However, as soon as I go outside of Sweden, which is a small country (9M people), I have to pay roaming charges. I don't mind so much the call charges, but they…

Hej! I'm vacationing in Sweden right now My iPhone is roaming on telenor. AT&T wants to charge me $19.99 per MB for data roaming here. Needless to say it turned it off and I'm using wifi when available.

That is an outrageous price. Still not as expensive as SMS (per bit of data), but still...

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

#207

Post by prakashk »

gonzopancho wrote: post #169
nextparadigms wrote: post #72

I don't think this is a good idea for customers. Even Sprint acquiring T-mobile is a bad idea, but this is much worse. At least with Sprint buying T-mobile you'd have 3 equal sized companies, but in this case, I wouldn't be surprised if Sprint eventually gets bought by Verizon, and then Americans will really be in trouble.

Who is to say that Sprint won't get acquired by AT&T?

That would be unlikely (or at least, less likely) considering that Sprint uses CDMA, while AT&T uses GSM. T-Mobile's network would be easier for AT&T to integrate.

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

#208

Post by nl »

scottjad wrote: post #190
nl wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under what grounds would it be challenged? Genuine question: Obviously it can't be challenged on anti-trust grounds (unless the original AT&T settlement applies here somehow), and I don't know enough US law to know what else might apply. I know many countries have a regulator for mergers that can sometimes apply a "bad for competition" policy, but I thought in the US that would only apply if it forms an actual monopo…

I think your assumption is wrong that the FTC will only block these sorts of deals if a company has a monopoly. I think they actually have rules they generally follow about how big a company they'll allow given the number and size of other market participants. Not sure if it varies by industry.

Citation? Examples?

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

#209

Post by crasshopper »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #196
crasshopper wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Voice eliminates the problem of having to tell people to call you at a different number. As I understand it this was Grand Central's motivation for developing the technology in the first place.

Two issues here: Google Voice is not available outside the US (at least last time I checked) I don't want to entrust Google more then my searches and (very partially) my email. This rules out, for example, an Android phone or using Chrome.

Oh, snap! [1] Sorry to hear that, and [2] probably wise.

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

#210

Post by billybob »

trotsky wrote: post #156
cletus wrote: post #30

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 wh…

I can see this acquisition facing some serious regulatory and legislative scrutiny. I would imagine AT&T has a certain number of favors to cash in at this point. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/AT%26T#Privac...

Yep. "Hey government, you know that pipe we use to funnel every citizens conversations to you? That was nice for you, huh? We want to engulf another company. Let us. (Also their conversations go in the pipe.)"
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