[quote]
[img]http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20110320/capt.photo_1300647031598-2-0.jpg[/img]
NEW YORK (AFP) – AT&T said Sunday it had agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Germany's Deutsche Telekom in a $39-billion blockbuster deal enabling it to overtake Verizon as the biggest US wireless provider.
The cash-and-stock deal, which needs regulatory approval, will give AT&T 34 million new customers and lift its annual wireless revenues to around $80 billion from $58.5 billion in 2010.
It will add to AT&T earnings in the third year after the deal closes, the company said, and help it compete with market leader Verizon.
"This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation's future," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive.
"It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced... capabilities to more than 294 million people.
"Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more."
According to data from comScore, AT&T held a 26.6% market share of US mobile subscribers in December 2010, while T-Mobile accounted for 12.2% of the market. Verizon, meanwhile, accounted for 31.3%.
The deal will give AT&T a big boost in its rivalry with Verizon, which recently started selling the Apple iPhone with an end to the AT&T monopoly.
Analysts said the deal also helps AT&T in the so-called 4G sector offering more advanced wireless services.
"AT&T has been under attack for not being able to match the network capacity of larger rival Verizon," said MG Siegler of the technology blog TechCrunch.
"And when they won the majority of the bids for the open spectrum in 2008, Verizon also had a clear path to the future. Now AT&T is taking another path: buying T-Mobile."
Deutsche Telekom's flamboyant former boss Ron Sommer bought Voicestream more than a decade ago at the height of the dotcom boom, re-branding it T-Mobile, but leaving the German firm struggling under a mountain of debt.
For years it was Deutsche Telekom's main growth-driver but in recent years a string of poor results gave rise to speculation that it wanted to put an end to its US adventure.
"This is a very very valuable deal for Deutsche Telekom. This is a good day," chief executive Rene Obermann said. "The proceeds will give us the financial firepower to finance our expansion plans in Europe."
Deutsche Telekom will get $25 billion in cash and $14 billion worth of shares, making the German firm AT&T's biggest minority shareholder with an eight-percent stake and a seat on the board, based on the current share price.
AT&T has the right to increase the portion of the purchase price paid in cash by up to $4.2 billion with a corresponding reduction in the stock component, Deutsche Telekom said.
The cash portion of the purchase price will be financed with new debt and cash on AT&T's balance sheet. AT&T has an 18-month commitment of $20 billion underwritten by JP Morgan.
Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said that the deal will mean that high-speed mobile broadband will improve in quality and coverage, including, in the long run, in rural communities.
"The bad news: the cost of that service won't come down nearly as fast as customers would like, since AT&T and Verizon Wireless combined would own nearly three out of every four wireless subscriptions in the US," he said.
"While clearly troublesome for Sprint and other smaller mobile competitors, it's also bad news for cable operators, whose incipient mobility products will suffer in comparison to what AT&T and Verizon can offer."
[/quote]
[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110321/ap_on_hi_te/us_at_t_t_mobile_customers;_ylt=Al68ydzLztOte26M4S85i5sjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTJybzU1bG9oBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzIxL3VzX2F0X3RfdF9tb2JpbGVfY3VzdG9tZXJzBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDNgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawN3aGF0YXR0LXQtbW8-]Source[/url]
Now Sprint is one of the only smaller popular networks "[i]remaining[/i]". There are plenty of other providers but sprint and t-mobile were of the two notable ones when talking about wireless carriers excluding AT&T and Verzion.
[editline]21st March 2011[/editline]
If your wondering what this means for you t-mobile customers.
[quote]
NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. has agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, but the deal isn't set to close until a year from now, and it will likely face tough regulatory scrutiny. Here's what a completed deal could mean for customers:
• Bigger choice of phones for T-Mobile subscribers. T-Mobile, as a much smaller carrier than AT&T, doesn't get as many exclusives on top-line phones, and it doesn't have the iPhone. This won't be a big benefit to T-Mobile subscribers who don't have contracts — if they want the iPhone today, they can sign up with AT&T or Verizon Wireless. But subscribers under contract would find it easier to upgrade to an iPhone.
• Fewer pricing plans to choose from. T-Mobile and AT&T have different offerings, some of which might disappear from the market.
• No more unlimited data plans. AT&T has stopped offering unlimited data plans in favor of plans with monthly data usage caps and overage fees. T-Mobile USA still offers "unlimited" data for smartphones for $30 per month, but slows down downloads after 5 gigabytes of traffic in a month. If the deal closes, current "unlimited" subscribers would likely be grandfathered in, but AT&T would probably stop offering the plan to new subscribers.
• Better network coverage. Combining the two networks will improve performance is some areas, because there will be more towers available. However, today's AT&T phones can't use T-Mobile's 3G wireless data network, and vice versa, because they run on different frequencies.
• Wider rural broadband coverage. AT&T is pledging to increase spending on the construction of a new ultrafast broadband network by $8 billion, to cover rural areas.
• The big question is whether the combination would let AT&T, Verizon and Sprint raise prices on wireless service once competition from T-Mobile disappears. AT&T points out that prices have fallen through a decade of mergers in the industry, but public-interest groups are raising concerns.
[/quote]
[url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110321/ap_on_hi_te/us_at_t_t_mobile_customers;_ylt=Al68ydzLztOte26M4S85i5sjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTJybzU1bG9oBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzIxL3VzX2F0X3RfdF9tb2JpbGVfY3VzdG9tZXJzBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDNgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawN3aGF0YXR0LXQtbW8-]Read more info[/url]
well damn
brb switching off t-mobile
I feel so lonely. Nothing ever happens with Verizon. We just suck.
[quote=AT&T says T-Mobile 3G phones will need to replaced if $39B acquisition goes through]
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T says that if its deal to buy T-Mobile USA goes through, T-Mobile subscribers with "3G" phones will need to replace those to keep their wireless broadband service working.
AT&T Inc. on Sunday said it had agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. If approved by regulators, the deal would close about a year from now.
AT&T said Monday that it in the year after the closing, it plans to rearrange how T-Mobile's cell towers work. The spectrum they use for third-generation services, or 3G, will be repurposed for 4G, which is faster.
That would leave current T-Mobile phones without 3G. They would need to be replaced with phones that use AT&T's 3G frequencies. AT&T said it had factored the cost of replacement phones into the total cost of the acquisition.
[/quote]
[url]http://www.dailypress.com/technology/sns-bc-us--att-t-mobileusa-phones,0,2692067.story[/url]
[QUOTE=AgentBoomstick;28726511]I feel so lonely. Nothing ever happens with Verizon. We just suck.[/QUOTE]
My sister has verzion. She keeps breaking her phones. Anyways her network is faster in my state than my carrier.
Can you hear me now?
Nope.
[url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1071373-AT-amp-T-to-acquire-T-Mobile-for-39-Billion[/url]
(just fyi)
Although this thread does have plenty more content
[QUOTE=CobraUnit;28726976]Can you hear me now?
Nope.[/QUOTE]
More like call dropped.
Does this mean I'll lose my fave fives? :ohdear:
I read in an article that they're dong this so they can get immediate access to T-Mobiles GSM towers to offset the load on their network because it takes ages apparently to get permits and proper licensing to build new towers, especially in big cities.
Does this mean my service for T-Mobile is about to get even shittier?
[editline]25th March 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=77boy84;28733131]Does this mean I'll lose my fave fives? :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
From what I've read and heard, I don't think they're going to merge into one company (AT&T).
As far as I can tell, T-Mobile will still exist, it will just be owned and operated by AT&T. There are some up sides to this, as we will have access to many more phones as T-Mobile users.
[QUOTE=AgentBoomstick;28726511]I feel so lonely. Nothing ever happens with Verizon. We just suck.[/QUOTE]
There are talks that Verizon and Sprint might partner up after this deal.
[QUOTE=Identity;28808201]There are talks that Verizon and Sprint might partner up after this deal.[/QUOTE]
I hope note. The last reasonably priced phone service would cease to exist.
well, after this was announced the Verizon CEO said he wasn't interested in buying Sprint so that doesn't look too likely.
Source:
[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/us-verizonwireless-interview-idUSTRE72L0K820110322[/url]
I love how I keep seeing t-mobile commercials that attack AT&T
