AT&T To Acquire T-Mobile From Deutsche Telekom

teh31337one writes "AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in cash and stocks. Press release here." Gripes one anonymous reader: "Americans will have even less choice now when it comes to cell phone carriers. Say good-bye to the one that had the best customer service and was most friendly towards Android and rooting."

Comments

Not gonna lie

[Anonymous Coward]

This is bad.

Re:Not gonna lie

[Tridus]

Fewer carriers means you can get a similar situation to Canada. We have "few carriers", and pay some of the highest prices on the planet for pathetically weak service.

If you want more of that, by all means.

Re:Not gonna lie

[DaMattster]

Man, I left AT&T for T-Mobile. I hate, repeat hate AT&T. This is bad!

Re:Not gonna lie

[Karl Cocknozzle]

I'm thinking it's time for a change if this doesn't' improve in the next 5 months.

To me, this is the travesty of mobile phone/data service in the U.S.: Our mobile-phone market has been divvied up between the big players, and we're all locked into contracts that cost more than a new car to escape from.

And now we have one fewer choice.

And unlike US Cellular, T-Mobile was a legit nationwide carrier.

Guess I better learn to accept the Verizon shaft or prepare to deal with the overall crappyness of AT&T.

Re:you say good-bye, i say hello

[ZosX]

Except that the two carriers use two different bands for 3g data and T-Mobile customers could already roam on AT&Ts network, but at edge only speeds.

This is bad. As a t-mobile customer I'm going to be awfully sad the day I have to give up my unlimited tethered internet. Sprint is looking like the only real option left and I really detest the $10 smartphone tax just on fucking principle.

The promise of unlimited wireless internet is looking bleaker and bleaker by the day.

Don't worry Citizens!

[Haedrian]

The free market will save us!

Any minute now...

Re:Don't worry Citizens!

[Wonko the Sane]

If only we had one it might.

Re:Don't worry Citizens!

[LurkerXXX]

The people who bitch about how much better it was when there was one Ma Bell mostly weren't alive when there was a Ma Bell.

Having to pay a rental fee for every phone in your home every month because you were not allowed to own your own phone wasn't exactly a great thing.

Re:Deal still subject to regulatory approval

[straponego]

The only people who will benefit from this are the executives. They'll lay off tens of thousands and stick the money in their own pockets. Plus millions of customers who fled AT&T's fucking horrible network are now going to be forced to give them even more unearned money (at least in early termination fees). The bigger the crime, the safer the crook.

Of course, some will claim that this will help AT&T's network. That a dollop of shit in a glass of wine is wine, not shit. Bottoms up!

Well, POOP!

[IonOtter]

I have been a loyal T-Mobile customer for 8 years, and I've NEVER regretted the move for a single second.

I pay $50 a month for nation-wide no roaming coverage, 500 texts, IM, international calling, 600 free anytime minutes and free nights and weekends. NOBODY has a deal as good as that for what you get. Not Verizon, not AT&T, not Sprint...nobody.

I loved that T-Mobile would sign contracts with "small fry" to extend their coverage to areas previously untouched. When I moved, my cellphone said "Sun-Com" for nearly 2 years, but I never paid a penny more. They finally put a T-M tower in my area, and service has been outstanding!

Now I have to move to the Death Star?

And be lied to, over-charged and spied upon?

Fuck you, AT&T.

Maybe I should go pre-paid.

Re:Deal still subject to regulatory approval

[davester666]

AT&T is blowing $39 BILLION for the company. They can afford a few ten's of millions of dollars for "permission" to go ahead.

We used to break up monopolies.

[Beelzebud]

Now we celebrate them! All hail the invisible hand!

Re:We used to break up monopolies.

[maztuhblastah]

Now we celebrate them! All hail the invisible hand!

Jesus. The amount of anti-capitalism smugness in these comments is amazing.

Look, the US telecom market is about as far from the free market as you can get. The carriers get massive privileges in the form of land usage. They get massive amounts of tax breaks and subsidies, not to mention innumerable perks from local governments. To top it all off, the carriers don't even have to compete in an open market; the wireless spectrum is a heavily-licensed, extremely expensive, very limited resource doled out by a single government agency.

Free market my ass. Let's not use this to crucify capitalism, shall we?

Re:Obligatory predictions.

[whoever57]

# T-Mobile annually won awards for their incredible customer service. Hopefully AT&T adopts their paradigms.

Yeah, good luck with that. Chance of that happening: 0%

# With AT&T being the only GSM carrier in the US, manufacturer agreements will be way easier and, thus, we'll finally be getting a vast selection of high-end phones. (T-Mobile has been steadily improving in this front.)

Again, good luck with that. AT&T offers iPhones, what else do you want? You don't want that commie Android system do you?

# HOPEFULLY AT&T customers will get UMA (GAN), probably one of T-Mobile's best and most exclusive features. They would be incredibly short-sighted to throw that technology away.

The main reason I like T-Mobile. I can travel internationally and pay for calls as if I were still in the USA.

Re:Ze Germans

[hedwards]

It's the abysmal telecommunications sector. Around here I've got 5 choices, 3 of them would require me to buy a new phone, and only T-Mobile and AT&T allow the use of random phones with a SIM. Sprint won't activate a phone that doesn't have it's logo silk screened on it, and none of the major providers competes for anything other than being somewhat less sucky than the others and depending upon inertia to carry them through.

It's been getting progressively worse over the years. Even with GSM, AT&T uses a different portion of the spectrum for 3G than T-Mobile does, meaning that there's going to be a lot of people without 3G or having to buy new phones prematurely if this goes through.

Re:Deal still subject to regulatory approval

[StarChamber]

Surely AT&T could fix up their own network for less than the cost of T-Mobile.

This acquisition isn't about subscribers or network equipment. AT&T is spending $39B to purchase T-Mobile's frequency spectrum in the US so that they can ensure that they have enough spectrum to roll out LTE and continue to upgrade their 3G HSPA+ network. Any subscribers that opt to stay with AT&T post merger is just an added benefit to them.

Re:Obligatory predictions.

[pablo_max]

A switch to GSM is irrelevant.
All carriers will switch to LTE, which, right there in the name, is the long term evolution for GSM/UMTS.

What does this mean to you?
Simple. Sprint (after they switch to LTE),Virizon and ATT will all be on the same tech.
Of course, you will say that they are on separate bands. So what. Nearly all phones which you buy will support ALL implemented LTE bands. It wont matter a bit where you are with LTE>
Basically, US is getting on board with the rest of the planet. Well..all but Japan who will stay with Nttdocomo version of LTE.
Still ATT does suck for customer service and stealing your money.
But hey...You guys in the US dont appear to give a fuck about what your elected officials do, so dont start crying when shit happens.

Re:Bad?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I'm pretty sure that Original Sin is basically a shrinkwrap EULA that you "agree" to by being born.

Attempts to explain the concept of "contract of adhesion" to a vengeful iron age deity have, as yet, been unsuccessful....

Big diff tween cell service and grocery stores...

[ibsteve2u]

Do ya get locked into a one-year contract at yer grocery store wherein if your vittles suddenly start reeking of rotting chicken and have shiny little worms crawling around in them too bad, ya gotta eat 'em anyway?