AT&T to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion

[MikeOKC]

Nobody really saw this one coming. Most rumors had Deutsche Telekom buying Sprint or some kind of Sprint/T-Mobile merger. But AT&T?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42181927...s-us_business/

[Thunder]

So all of T-Mobile customers will now be with AT&T? Those poor souls.

[rcjunkie]

So all of T-Mobile customers will now be with AT&T? Those poor souls.

I've been with AT&T for 7 years, have always received great service and no problems.

[metro]

I've been on tmobile forever, and not happy about the merger. Oh well.

[MikeOKC]

Well, from a customer service standpoint, T-Mobile customers stand to suffer if you believe Consumer Reports. In their annual "Consumer Reports' Best Cellphone Service Survey" AT&T was dead last. Verizon and T-Mobile were 1 and 2 respectively - and neck and neck in most all categories.

[kwash]

Yep, been with t-mobile for 8yrs. They were dying though, att and verizon rule the wireless industry in america. Tmobile was struggling badly with only 33million customers. Att has 85million and verizon has 100million customers, so tmobile was so far behind, and not to mention tmobile is a german owned company. When its finally said and done, the only options their will be is verizon,att or sprint. Rumors now are that sprint is gonna buy out us cellular, which is a small regional carrier.

[MikeOKC]

This sure got a lot of attention last week:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/22193...e_fastest.html

Look (in the story above) at how comprehensive the testing was. Many gave this test a lot of credibility even with the shock results.



Of course, laptop modem speeds belonged to Verizon by a wide margin (their data access to the 4G LTE is incredibly fast). But most use their phones for access to 4G.

Edit: Here are the DATA SPEEDS USING LAPTOP MODEMS:


However, all is not lost - Verizon rolled out their first 4G LTE smartphone last week - http://phones.verizonwireless.com/htc/thunderbolt/

[Matt]

[Thunder]

Matt, that video was a whole fail. I kept waiting for that girl to get on her bike and zip off while the guys topple over.

[Matt]

Any ad that has a girl like her in an outfit like that can't be a total failure.

[Thunder]

Any ad that has a girl like her in an outfit like that can't be a total failure.

You naughty boy, you!

[bluedogok]

I've been with AT&T for 7 years, have always received great service and no problems.

I guess that you would be one of the few, I did have much better service in OKC before I moved to Austin but since then it has been bad in both places. After 11 years with SWBMS/Cingular/AT&T I switched in December to Verizon. I just couldn't put up with the crappy AT&T service anymore. For a long time I had to go outside the house to get a decent connection and even then at times it was bad. I am only about 5 miles south of Downtown Austin in an area built out in the mid-70's, not a brand new development or out in the boonies. It hardly worked in my office as well, you have to go to the east end of our space to get a halfway decent signal, that isn't the case with my new Verizon phone.

Both my parents and my sister have T-Mobile, so it will be affecting them and they aren't too happy about it.

[OKCDrummer77]

How does this affect those of us who are under contract? Technically, our contract is with T-Mobile, not AT&T. Will AT&T pick up the contracts and require that we honor the terms, or will there be an escape option for those who might want to jump ship?

[Easy180]

Me likey

AT&T said its customers would benefit from the cell towers and wireless spectrum the deal would bring. In some areas, it would add 30 percent more capacity, AT&T said.

"It obviously will have a significant impact in terms of dropped calls and network performance," Stephenson said.

[ljbab728]

I guess that you would be one of the few, I did have much better service in OKC before I moved to Austin but since then it has been bad in both places. After 11 years with SWBMS/Cingular/AT&T I switched in December to Verizon. I just couldn't put up with the crappy AT&T service anymore. For a long time I had to go outside the house to get a decent connection and even then at times it was bad. I am only about 5 miles south of Downtown Austin in an area built out in the mid-70's, not a brand new development or out in the boonies. It hardly worked in my office as well, you have to go to the east end of our space to get a halfway decent signal, that isn't the case with my new Verizon phone.

Both my parents and my sister have T-Mobile, so it will be affecting them and they aren't too happy about it.

I guess I'm one of the few also. I've never had anything but AT&T and never had a problem.

[Stew]

I too am one of the few. I've had cingular/AT&T for years and never had a problem. I had voicestream/t-mobile for a couple of years which ended up in a billing dispute that took me a year to get off my credit report. This buy-out kind of tickles me. DIE T-Mobile DIE.

[Snowman]

How does this affect those of us who are under contract? Technically, our contract is with T-Mobile, not AT&T. Will AT&T pick up the contracts and require that we honor the terms, or will there be an escape option for those who might want to jump ship?

Coin flip, a lot of times they honor terms as long as you keep paying but stop offering new people to get the same plan, no guaranties though.

[HewenttoJared]

This would explain Apple's complete lack of interest in T-Mobile.

On the question of who this hurts I can say that I sell all three, and there are horror stories from every single carrier. T-Mobile has always had a sort of naïveté about how to draw and keep customers, but i don't think they treat them especially worse or better around here. I'm very interested in what AT&T will do about the existing T-Mobile "4G" upgraded towers and the rollout of AT&T's similar but not entirely the same programs.

[Thunder]

When Sprint was advertising their new 4G coverage, there was a quote they said, "Not now, not ever," talking about AT&T will never have 4G. :-O

[bombermwc]

Depends on what "4G" is...it's not really a standard like 3G was. You can call 4G whatever you want but it doesn't mean the various 4G's are equal.

[OkieHornet]

I guess I'm one of the few also. I've never had anything but AT&T and never had a problem.

ditto. been with them through swbell/cingular/at&t. but i'm also still using a motorola razr and just use it for phonecalls and about a hundred or so texts a month.

[Kerry]

I just ran the SpeedTest app on my Sprint EVO 4G:

Upload:2.9 Mbps
Download: 0.549 Mbps

Those tests shown above must be before 4G (atleast for Sprint)

[jn1780]

Matt, that video was a whole fail. I kept waiting for that girl to get on her bike and zip off while the guys topple over.

I guess AT&T guy can buy off T-Mobile girl using the money that iPhone guy provided. LOL

[jn1780]

Depends on what "4G" is...it's not really a standard like 3G was. You can call 4G whatever you want but it doesn't mean the various 4G's are equal.

I think industry experts say what marketing is calling "4G" is more like a transitional generation.

This is what will eventually become the 4G standard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_Advanced

[cameron_405]

How does this affect those of us who are under contract? Technically, our contract is with T-Mobile, not AT&T. Will AT&T pick up the contracts and require that we honor the terms, or will there be an escape option for those who might want to jump ship?

...only time will tell, but there will be subscribers forced to find new service. In order for the government to approve the Alltel buyout by Verizon, VZ was required to divest certain assets and markets (which ATT scooped-up on the cheap). Verizon lost 15% of its base for that transaction. The ATT/T-Mobile deal will also incur scrutiny by the government, and will also involve concessions.

Hey Mike, what do you think is in store for Sprint now? They own a 54% stake in Clearwire -- seems to be a logical buyout candidate to me. [wouldn't it be a kicker if VZ made a bid for S?]