AT&T Buys T-Mobile for $39 Billion

DigMe · #1 03-20-2011, 04:10 PM

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/03/20/...or-39-billion/

Bad news for a lot of peeps.

bc

Linas · #2 03-20-2011, 04:20 PM

What does this mean for the average T-mobile or att customer?

SoonerMatt · #3 03-20-2011, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linas

What does this mean for the average T-mobile or att customer?

Both parties will benefit from marginally better cell service and reception. AT&T customers will also expect better 4G coverage. T-Mobile customers will help drive a 400% increase in tissue and alcohol sales when they see how bad AT&T screws over their subscribers, especially those of us with Android phones.

On the corporate side, this is good for Deutsche Telekom, as State-side T-Mobile has been losing them money and they're being relieved of a massive red mark on their reports. This is good for AT&T because it gives them much more coverage, saves them the trouble of propping up additional 4G towers, makes them the largest carrier in the country and the only one with GSM (this is also why AT&T bought Cingular in the 2000s - they wanted all the GSM to themselves).

tl;dr - While mutually beneficial for both companies on the corporate side, AT&T customers are getting the better deal and T-Mobile customers are going to start squealing like pigs up against pinball machines in prison.

rr5025 · #4 03-20-2011, 04:35 PM

So how long until we see the improved service? I'm excited to see if this bumps things up a tad, if so then all my complaints will be nullified.

fenderphil · #5 03-20-2011, 04:44 PM

ugh. I went with Tmobile to specifically avoid AT&T service.

Tmobile has been... strained.... lately. This just explains things.

tplyons · #6 03-20-2011, 04:48 PM

I just hope this means Catherine Zeta Jones starts doing AT&T commercials...

Selta · #7 03-20-2011, 06:23 PM

I wonder if the FCC is going to step in on this. That means AT&T will be the only GSM carrier in the USA, and we'll now only have three players on the field.

CapnSev · #8 03-20-2011, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Linas

What does this mean for the average T-mobile or att customer?

A high bill.

jonathan_matos5 · #9 03-20-2011, 06:37 PM

it means better coverage for some and worse customer service for others.

DigMe · #10 03-20-2011, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray Salamon

I wonder if the FCC is going to step in on this. That means AT&T will be the only GSM carrier in the USA, and we'll now only have three players on the field.

I don't know, man. I doubt they'll block.

What I do know is that less competition is bad news for consumers.

bc

Mike N · #11 03-20-2011, 07:13 PM

My contract with T Mobile runs out Monday, and by Tuesday I'll be with Verizon. I liked T Mobile products and their customer service is decent. It's nice speaking to: a) a real person, not a computer, and b) someone you can actually understand. But, T Mobile's coverage sucks, period.

Sonic_Death · #12 03-20-2011, 07:37 PM

I've had Cingular/AT&T for as long as I've had a cell phone and I pretty much have zero complaints about their service.

There have been very few instances where I was not able to get service, and otherwise I have not had any issues. I don't think I've ever even needed to contact customer support to complain about anything.

Hopefully they do not end up screwing T-Mobile customers because of the consolidation that will occur. It would be nice to get some of the phones that T-Mobile offers though

I am always very interested in the policy issues that come into play because of this.

UnsungZeros · #13 03-20-2011, 07:51 PM

Great, now we'll all have even less competition.

Can the DoJ/FCC please grow a spine and break up this oligopoly?

MJ5150 · #14 03-20-2011, 08:17 PM

All we need now is for Verizon to buy AT&T, and we're done.

-Mike

Thunderscreech · #15 03-20-2011, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJ5150

All we need now is for Verizon to buy AT&T, and we're done.

-Mike

This pretty much.

A.Diva · #16 03-20-2011, 09:05 PM

I guess I can kiss my cheap-@ss $36 per month goodbye.

DavidE · #17 03-20-2011, 09:20 PM

"T-Mobile customers will help drive a 400% increase in tissue and alcohol sales when they see how bad AT&T screws over their subscribers, especially those of us with Android phones."

I don't get this. I was a Verizon customer for 15 years before switching to AT&T the day the iPhone 4 came out. I was generally happy with Verizon, but their customer service often sucked ass. Any time I made any change to my plan, they screwed it up. I spent many hours over those 15 years getting them to fix their own mistakes. And I kept my last Verizon phone for 3 years + because they didn't offer a single phone that appealed to me. The best they had was the HTC Incredible which worked well, but had such poor battery life (according to the reviews and some friends' real world experience) that I wouldn't settle for it. My iPhone 4 has been amazing and really changed my daily life in terms of what it can do for me. AT&T's customer service has really been quite excellent. Their coverage isn't nearly what Verizon offered, but in my real life, it hasn't been an issue and, in fact, I get better reception on AT&T in my office and my daily commute than I did with Verizon. I do drop more calls, but Verizon dropped almost as many. No complaints about call quality compared to Verizon.

I'm looking forward to the better coverage!