AT&T to acquire T-Mobile

[RandySF]

As anyone who has read a tech blog in the past few years will know, AT&T has been under attack for not being able to match the network capacity of larger rival Verizon. 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.

Here’s the release with the details of the deal. AT&T will pay roughly $39 billion to Deutsche Telekom for T-Mobile USA. Deutsche Telekom will also get a roughly 8 percent ownership stake in AT&T as a result of the deal. And a Deutsche Telekom executive will join AT&T’s Board.

With the deal, AT&T will get access to T-Mobile’s roughly 35 million customers. If the two fully merge, this will push AT&T far past Verizon in terms of subscriber numbers. Currently, Verizon has about 100 million subscribers in the U.S., while AT&T has about 95 million. This deal will also leave Sprint as the lone large outsider, with about 50 million subscribers.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/20/in-the-race-for-more-spectrum-att-is-acquiring-t-mobile-for-39-billion/

[subterranean]

1. That sucks. T-Mobile's prepaid plans are much better than AT&T's.

[Codeine]

2. Their plans in general are better.

This makes me quite unhappy. Luckily my contract is up in May.

[erinlough]

6. That was my thought

Damn I just put 100 on yesterday, and that usually lasts me a year. Guess I'm stuck.

[subterranean]

9. I'd assume that existing T-Mobile plans will be grandfathered in.

You should be able to use the minutes you've already paid for, but may not be able to get the same deal after those run out.

[Angry Dragon]

3. How about some anti-trust here

[indepat]

5. Anti-trust? What a quaint term, but not operable in a time mammoths roam

and devour smaller game. ;)

[ananda]

4. I have t-mobile pay as you go.

600 minutes with a year to go. Oh well.

[AsahinaKimi]

7. I am betting that AT&T will change the way

T-Mobile did business. I got away from them years ago, because they SUCK. Now they have moved back in on me. I hope eventually I can find some company thats better, but AT&T will probably buy that up as well,...

畜生!!

[customerserviceguy]

8. If true, then it's time for me to leave

I won't deal with ATT, Verizon (they screwed me really good) or Sprint (their customer service around here is horrible in their stores), so who does that leave me?

I don't need a prepaid service, and I want something that will support a smartphone, since I've become rather accustomed to having one. I'd also need to figure out how to unlock mine so I can take it with me to where I'm going.

[needledriver]

10. Does that mean AT&T gets Catherine-Zeta Jones? n/t

[backscatter712]

11. God dammit!

I explicitly avoided AT&T because of their anticompetitive practices, such as their exclusivity with the iPhone (which is why I own an Android phone instead), and because of their collaboration with the Bush administration's illegal NSA wiretapping.