AT&T Buying T-Mobile for $39 Billion

[Nathan Explosion]

Surprised no one mentioned this yet.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/03/20/businessinsider-att-buying-t-mobile-usa-in-39-billion-deal-2011-3.DTL

[Cry Havoc]

F everything about this.

[ElNono]

Ma Bell has the Ill Communications...

[MannyIsGod]

:lol

Don't tell that to Nathan. According to him this is good for competition and will lead to lower prices.

[Cry Havoc]

:lol

Don't tell that to Nathan. According to him this is good for competition and will lead to lower prices.

Why have a monopoly when you can have a triopoly!?

[I. Hustle]

Sonufamuthafukkinbitch

[leemajors]

Ugh. Glad I work Euro stuff or this would mean way more work for me :lol

Maybe it helps coverage once everything is sorted, which will take forever.

[Nathan Explosion]

Why have a monopoly when you can have a triopoly!?

Read the damn article. Competition among cell phone carriers in 18 of the 20 largest markets is more fierce than you would think, with 5 or more providers providing service to customers. According to the article (note, NOT column) rates for service have dropped 50% in the last 10 years (adjusted for inflation).

What the article is basically saying is that while critics may think it's bad for service, you shouldn't be so quick to make assumptions as people do have alternatives.

Hell, some places probably have more cell phone providers than cable providers.

[Nathan Explosion]

Ugh. Glad I work Euro stuff or this would mean way more work for me :lol

Maybe it helps coverage once everything is sorted, which will take forever.

As I stated in the other thread (which was created after mine btw), it would be interesting to see what this does on the phone technology side.

1) Apple just gained access to over 46.5 million customers without having to do anything.

2) Sticking with the iPhone theme, 3 of the major carriers now have the iPhone, when just 2 short months ago, only 1 did.

3) Sprint is the big loser as it is now the smallest of the major carriers and by a large margin. Wonder what they do to respond.

4) Google should be happy as T-Mobile had quite a few android phones compared with AT&T, but I'm not sure how large the android presence was in T-Mobile.

The phone makers should like the merger in the sense that it's one less carrier to make phones for, which should be less work, but with access to the same customer base.

However, the new AT&T/T-Mobile company has much more leverage when dealing with the phone manufacturers.

[ElNono]

According to the last FCC report (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-298299A1.pdf) on wireless market competition, market concentration has been actually growing pretty solidly since 2003, and investment has declined as a percentage of revenue.

Without knowing exactly how many local markets are there in the US, focusing merely on the top 20 sounds fairly narrow, IMO. Is that 10% of the overall market? 5%, 1%, 0.01%?

[Nathan Explosion]

According to the last FCC report (http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-298299A1.pdf) on wireless market competition, market concentration has been actually growing pretty solidly since 2003, and investment has declined as a percentage of revenue.

Without knowing exactly how many local markets are there in the US, focusing merely on the top 20 sounds fairly narrow, IMO. Is that 10% of the overall market? 5%, 1%, 0.01%?

The report states a 32% concentration in 7 years, but 6.5% in the last 2. There used to be a lot of "mom and pop" type providers that seemed to have disappeared, but a few have held strong in my recollection. Service providers such as Cricket, Boost mobile, Tracphone and Virgin seem to have been around for a while. Hell, those 4 plus the big 4 (going on 3) makes 8 (soon 7) service providers I know you can get in San Antonio.

Of the top 10 provided in this link (http://cell-phone-providers-review.toptenreviews.com/), you can get a vast majority in major markets.

That seems like a pretty good selection right there for those fed up with the big companies. In the cable world, Grande is doing the same thing. I know people who love Grande, but it's a regional carrier that's been expanding.

Stupid people only stick with what they know, but can go to other alternatives and have a good experience. I think Cricket is doing a good job of getting to those who can't afford what AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have to offer, and giving them a product then can afford and like.

[DMX7]

T-Mobile was dead in the water, the just expands AT&T's network. Good deal, no big losers including the customers.

[Nathan Explosion]

T-Mobile was dead in the water, the just expands AT&T's network. Good deal, no big losers including the customers.

The point I've been making earlier is that while less competition is usually a bad thing, in the cell phone market, things aren't as they always appear. As I pointed out earlier, in San Antonio, there are plenty of options.

Having said that, as far as call quality is concerned, both networks should improve with the influx of new towers. In San Antonio, AT&T service was never a problem for me, while Sprint was okay. For the customers sake, hopefully the coverage should really expand and improve the call quality for those in problematic areas for either network.

[ElNono]

The report states a 32% concentration in 7 years, but 6.5% in the last 2. There used to be a lot of "mom and pop" type providers that seemed to have disappeared, but a few have held strong in my recollection. Service providers such as Cricket, Boost mobile, Tracphone and Virgin seem to have been around for a while. Hell, those 4 plus the big 4 (going on 3) makes 8 (soon 7) service providers I know you can get in San Antonio.

Of the top 10 provided in this link (http://cell-phone-providers-review.toptenreviews.com/), you can get a vast majority in major markets.

That seems like a pretty good selection right there for those fed up with the big companies. In the cable world, Grande is doing the same thing. I know people who love Grande, but it's a regional carrier that's been expanding.

Stupid people only stick with what they know, but can go to other alternatives and have a good experience. I think Cricket is doing a good job of getting to those who can't afford what AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have to offer, and giving them a product then can afford and like.

My understanding is that any positive number in market concentration basically indicates a decrease in market competition. Talking about Cricket, they just bought out Pocket communications.

Now, market consolidation after peaking is nothing new. What can be alarming is the trend.

[leemajors]

As I stated in the other thread (which was created after mine btw), it would be interesting to see what this does on the phone technology side.

1) Apple just gained access to over 46.5 million customers without having to do anything.

2) Sticking with the iPhone theme, 3 of the major carriers now have the iPhone, when just 2 short months ago, only 1 did.

3) Sprint is the big loser as it is now the smallest of the major carriers and by a large margin. Wonder what they do to respond.

4) Google should be happy as T-Mobile had quite a few android phones compared with AT&T, but I'm not sure how large the android presence was in T-Mobile.

The phone makers should like the merger in the sense that it's one less carrier to make phones for, which should be less work, but with access to the same customer base.

However, the new AT&T/T-Mobile company has much more leverage when dealing with the phone manufacturers.

T-mobile states they won't be offering the iPhone anytime soon:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/20/t-mobile-answers-its-customers-most-frequently-asked-question/

and this won't go through for at least 12 months IF the FCC even approves it. I was a Cingular customer and that transition took forever...

And this puts even less pressure on AT&T to improve the infrastructure of their network (which works fine for me, but it obviously needs a lot of work in many places - I hear downtown Austin was down to EDGE this weekend for SXSW), and makes their brass think a seamless transition will make further base improvements necessary. I think this creates more problems than it bandages at first.

[DJ Mbenga]

if metro pcs had 3g id be all over it. im tired of all these damn companies

[Xevious]

Hi, I'm a T-Mobile Mytouch 4G.

[Cry Havoc]

Leemajors with some solid takes in this thread.

AT&T is a behemoth if this goes through. You can say that they bought the 4G from T-Mobile, but they also picked up their customer share when this goes through. That is going to put even more demand on already crushed bandwidth. I have several friends in the NYC area with iPhones, and they say during the day it's still often difficult to make phone calls because AT&T hasn't supplied the necessary bandwidth to handle all the people using it.

This brings up another interesting point: Can we safely assume that until this goes through, AT&T is going to make nominal improvements to it's infrastructure, on the hope that it's going to get a boost from T-Mobile when the buyout is completed? That seems really shitty for it's current consumer base if they have to wait a minimum of 12 months to see increases in bandwidth for their new shiny 4G phones. By the time that switch is made, Sprint and Verizon will have pretty solid 4G/LTE saturation across most of the metro areas in the U.S.

It also sucks that there is a single major GSM provider in the US now. Less choice = bad for the consumer.

[Cry Havoc]

T-Mobile was dead in the water, the just expands AT&T's network. Good deal, no big losers including the customers.

What?

T-Mobile has markets throughout Europe as well as the U.S. They bought SunCon (Com?) not too long ago and were expanding here, but the U.S. is by no means their only source of revenue.

[DJ Mbenga]

Hi, I'm a T-Mobile Mytouch 4G.

:( does this mean we wont see any more of her?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BVMKRjXLGGo/TNec3q5VTeI/AAAAAAAAAOw/4SffpbBaDkc/s1600/ttttttt.jpg