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Wowzers! 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. The combined customer base of this upcoming behemoth will be 130 million humans, though the agreed deal will have to pass the usual regulatory and closing hurdles before becoming complete. The two companies estimate it'll take them 12 months to get through all the bureaucracy -- if they get through, the proposed network merger will create a de facto GSM monopoly within the United States -- but we don't have to wait that long to start discussing life with only three major US carriers. AT&T envisions it as a rosy garden of "straightforward synergies" thanks to a set of "complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations." For more details on that, hit up the Mobilize Everything site below or jump past the break for the official press release.
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Source: Engadget
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AT&T on Sunday acquired T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom in a $39 billion deal that will create the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. Almost immediately, AT&T started its campaign to get the deal approved by regulators.
The deal will have some serious ripple effects in the industry. Among the key items:
AT&T and T-Mobile will have a lot of spectrum for expansion.
Coverage for both carriers should improve.
That spectrum will give AT&T a lot of headroom for 4G LTE expansion.
It’s unclear whether regulators will go for this deal—even though AT&T blew Washington a lot of kisses in its statement.
Competitively, Sprint becomes a distant third place player and it’s unclear whether the company has much of a way forward. Sprint has to resolve its relationship for Clearwire and plot a 4G LTE plan. Meanwhile, AT&T and Verizon Wireless were already dominating the market and now Sprint lacks the heft to compete. T-Mobile and Sprint have been rumored to merge.
Indeed, Sprint will need a merger partner and Verizon Wireless may be a potential option. That move would create a U.S. wireless duopoly with a bevy of smaller players.
As Jason Hiner noted earlier, the wireless parts make sense. Both AT&T and T-Mobile operate on GSM and that means the networks can come together faster. In addition, AT&T’s plan to move to LTE can now become T-Mobile’s. AT&T will have about $80 million in total wireless revenue combined with T-Mobile, up from $58.5 billion today. AT&T also needed more wireless spectrum.
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Source: zdNet
http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/article...quires-tmobile
This is a sad sad day. I moved over to T-Mo April of last year, because I was tired of AT&T; high rate plans, crappy customer service and terrible network. I never had a 3G connection with them in any city I lived in. I hope they don't ruin T-Mo like they did Cingular.