And then there were three...
I don't think this is fair. MetroPCS has their own towers and is a pretty robust national carrier. Leap/Cricket also has a pretty broad footprint.
Too bad MetroPCS is not GSM. :(
AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
41–50 of 211 posts
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#42It'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…
Not to belabor the point, but it's worth noticing that it was a lack of regulation that caused the mess in the US. The FCC should have just mandated one technology (as in most other countries).
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#43Maybe I'll finally get a proper 3G signal in San Francisco now... Does anybody know the quality of T-Mobile's 3G Network in major cities?
Fwiw, I just took my Nexus S on Tmobile to SF for about five days back in Feb and didn't have any problems with signal or dropped calls.
I'm sure ATT will find a way to ruin it though. Too much redundant capacity, will shut down the Tmobile towers in SF.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#44Awesome. Now the US will have an even more competitive wireless market, (seriously: which is exactly what is necessary). I'm sure the wireless plans will only get better. edit: /sarcasm, obviously.
Is that sarcasm?
It was supposed to be. Looks like it may have not come across completely. Should've known better.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#45My main questions as a T-Mobile custoemr:
1. Will I be able to keep the same plan I'm on now? I'm assuming the answer is yes unless I make any changes, at which point they'll try to force me into a new AT&T, which will suck.
2. When can I buy an iPhone for use on my T-Mobile plan? This will still probably a good year away, though I hope it'll be faster.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do we care what the market share is for specific transmission technologies? The overall wireless market is extremely competitive.
You've obviously not been in the mobile handset business. Very, very few handsets are built for both GSM and CDMA, which is a situation that won't change for quite a while (upcoming next-gen LTE handsets should work on all carriers, but we will see about that). At the time of the iPhone deal, T-Mobile and AT&T were Apple's only two real options for deployment (Verizon was a negotiating tactic) -- they wanted to build…
You think Apple might have launched on T-Mobile, the last-place network?
Nationwide wireless networks are extraordinarily capital-intensive. Absent a massive technological shift --- which may be coming and which AT&T and Verizon are powerless to stop --- there are always going to be a (1) few (2) very large companies providing cell coverage. It may be more expensive to launch a nationwide wireless network than it is to launch an airline.
Meta, responding to your aside: respectfully, no. I'm trying to avoid typing for the sake of typing. I asked a serious question; you answered it; I responded to it with my take. That's how the system should work.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#47Only three big companies. There's got to be a point when these mergers hurt competition. I like T-Mobile because it offers cheaper postpaid plans without a contract. I don't think AT&T offers these and their plans are generally more expensive.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#48From 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..
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#49It'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…
Even if you could simply swap your SIM card to swap providers in the US, the majority of customers would not suddenly become portable; people don't want to pay $500 up front for a phone, even though they're paying more down the line.
Most people do not own smartphones. So the majority of customers don't need a large upfront investment to get a portable phone.
Re: AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
#50It'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…
Not to belabor the point, but it's worth noticing that it was a lack of regulation that caused the mess in the US. The FCC should have just mandated one technology (as in most other countries).
Having the government decided which technologies can be used might have had some benefits here but it seems like there would be a lot less work on making technologies better and a lot more work on lobbying if that were the case.