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At&T to purchase T-Mobile

AndreaCristiano said:
Well we don't know if that's going away. Also tmobile customer service and android team will be part of ATT win
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Not sure how you can say this. Sure it may not happen overnight, but they will push people into ATT plans eventually through attrition if nothing else.

Also, part of the deal is that they intend to integrate back office and customer service. Anything redundant will be consolidated. That's just business. They aren't going to keep tmobile's level of customer service, because they already compete by providing ATT's level of customer service.

Now, seeing as how ATT is has been the most Android unfriendly carrier around (no other carrier locks out 3rd party apps on an Android phone), the concern from tmobile customers is very valid.

T-mobile is like the home of Android. Every developer phone was launched there. ATT is also also widely regarded as the most agressive for cracking down on tethering.

This is a serious blow to competition. Sprint and T-mobile were the only carriers left to make any kind of challenge to the big 2. And now I'd be willing to bet Sprint will be bought by VZW. And I don't know of any market where the consumers "win" from only have two or three nearly identical choices. There is a reason ATT was broken up into baby bells. Their anti-competative behavoir is of historic record. (sidenote too: Verizon is another re-concentration of baby bells)

I also think spectrum crunch is a bit of a red herring-- that's literally 5 years off. And the FCC is planning on adding 300Mhz to the mix between now and then. As well as just opened the Super WiFi white noise inbetween TV spectrums. Mostly you hear carriers compain about spectrum crunch when they are talking about having to buy it. When the reality is they should share it. And Mostly your hear about spectrum crunch when the FCC wants to sell something.

You are also incorrect in saying Tmo had no spectrum for LTE. For one, they weren't planning on even using LTE - so who knows why they would want spectrum for it. For two, they were expanding HSPA+ into extra spectrum they had just purchased in the past five years.

Also saying there will be more towers is a bit off since they wont be on the same spectrum and we wont see any of that sorted or see phones with the radios using it for years. Consumers wont see much of any benefit from this since only the edge spectrum overlaps.
 
alostpacket said:
Not sure how you can say this. Sure it may not happen overnight, but they will push people into ATT plans eventually through attrition if nothing else.

Also, part of the deal is that they intend to integrate back office and customer service. Anything redundant will be consolidated. That's just business. They aren't going to keep tmobile's level of customer service, because they already compete by providing ATT's level of customer service.

Now, seeing as how ATT is has been the most Android unfriendly carrier around (no other carrier locks out 3rd party apps on an Android phone), the concern from tmobile customers is very valid.

T-mobile is like the home of Android. Every developer phone was launched there. ATT is also also widely regarded as the most agressive for cracking down on tethering.

This is a serious blow to competition. Sprint and T-mobile were the only carriers left to make any kind of challenge to the big 2. And now I'd be willing to bet Sprint will be bought by VZW. And I don't know of any market where the consumers "win" from only have two or three nearly identical choices. There is a reason ATT was broken up into baby bells. Their anti-competative behavoir is of historic record. (sidenote too: Verizon is another re-concentration of baby bells)

I also think spectrum crunch is a bit of a red herring-- that's literally 5 years off. And the FCC is planning on adding 300Mhz to the mix between now and then. As well as just opened the Super WiFi white noise inbetween TV spectrums. Mostly you hear carriers compain about spectrum crunch when they are talking about having to buy it. When the reality is they should share it. And Mostly your hear about spectrum crunch when the FCC wants to sell something.

You are also incorrect in saying Tmo had no spectrum for LTE. For one, they weren't planning on even using LTE - so who knows why they would want spectrum for it. For two, they were expanding HSPA+ into extra spectrum they had just purchased in the past five years.

Also saying there will be more towers is a bit off since they wont be on the same spectrum and we wont see any of that sorted or see phones with the radios using it for years. Consumers wont see much of any benefit from this since only the edge spectrum overlaps.
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WOW I love how you made all that up and didnt read the press releases from either company!

TMO says in their release they had no spectrum for LTE and now with AT&T their customers will get 4G, same echoed by AT&T.

In the press releases they give examples about towers for instance in NYC alone AT&T will gain 1000 towers!!

Again in the press release they talk about how they will use pentaband phones and tmobiles AWS spectrum will be part of LTE along with the 700MHZ that AT&T has

Also in the press release AT&T alludes to money savings for customers as this purchase will save them billions because its like % years worth of infrastructure for a quarter of the price and instantly!

Again in the magical press release AT&T says they will use both staffs from AT&T and Tmobile going forward so maybe a few people in corporate may loose jobs but the majority wont

Theres alot more gems in the release and slide show i posted

So no offense but maybe reading facts helps ;)
 
alostpacket said:
Not sure how you can say this. Sure it may not happen overnight, but they will push people into ATT plans eventually through attrition if nothing else.

Also, part of the deal is that they intend to integrate back office and customer service. Anything redundant will be consolidated. That's just business. They aren't going to keep tmobile's level of customer service, because they already compete by providing ATT's level of customer service.

Now, seeing as how ATT is has been the most Android unfriendly carrier around (no other carrier locks out 3rd party apps on an Android phone), the concern from tmobile customers is very valid.

T-mobile is like the home of Android. Every developer phone was launched there. ATT is also also widely regarded as the most agressive for cracking down on tethering.

This is a serious blow to competition. Sprint and T-mobile were the only carriers left to make any kind of challenge to the big 2. And now I'd be willing to bet Sprint will be bought by VZW. And I don't know of any market where the consumers "win" from only have two or three nearly identical choices. There is a reason ATT was broken up into baby bells. Their anti-competative behavoir is of historic record. (sidenote too: Verizon is another re-concentration of baby bells)

I also think spectrum crunch is a bit of a red herring-- that's literally 5 years off. And the FCC is planning on adding 300Mhz to the mix between now and then. As well as just opened the Super WiFi white noise inbetween TV spectrums. Mostly you hear carriers compain about spectrum crunch when they are talking about having to buy it. When the reality is they should share it. And Mostly your hear about spectrum crunch when the FCC wants to sell something.

You are also incorrect in saying Tmo had no spectrum for LTE. For one, they weren't planning on even using LTE - so who knows why they would want spectrum for it. For two, they were expanding HSPA+ into extra spectrum they had just purchased in the past five years.

Also saying there will be more towers is a bit off since they wont be on the same spectrum and we wont see any of that sorted or see phones with the radios using it for years. Consumers wont see much of any benefit from this since only the edge spectrum overlaps.
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Great perspective!

I have a question I couldn't find an answer to yet...so I figured i'd ask here

Could existing towers be upgraded to add other frequencies? (Add tmobile frequencies to at&t towers and vice versa)

At&t's hspa+ upgrade is dealing with existing towers...did they always have the hspa+ frequencies or is it some kind of software/hardware upgrade to add it? And if it is something they added after the fact could this not work to also add the other carriers frequencies to existing towers?
 
AndreaCristiano said:
WOW I love how you made all that up and didnt read the press releases from either company!

TMO says in their release they had no spectrum for LTE and now with AT&T their customers will get 4G, same echoed by AT&T.

In the press releases they give examples about towers for instance in NYC alone AT&T will gain 1000 towers!!

Again in the press release they talk about how they will use pentaband phones and tmobiles AWS spectrum will be part of LTE along with the 700MHZ that AT&T has

Also in the press release AT&T alludes to money savings for customers as this purchase will save them billions because its like % years worth of infrastructure for a quarter of the price and instantly!

Again in the magical press release AT&T says they will use both staffs from AT&T and Tmobile going forward so maybe a few people in corporate may loose jobs but the majority wont

Theres alot more gems in the release and slide show i posted

So no offense but maybe reading facts helps ;)
Click to expand...

like i trust anything a "press release" says. It will be like that at first but eventually ATT will take over and push there motives on t-mobile plans and such.
 
gatorguy said:
Great perspective!

I have a question I couldn't find an answer to yet...so I figured i'd ask here

Could existing towers be upgraded to add other frequencies? (Add tmobile frequencies to at&t towers and vice versa)

At&t's hspa+ upgrade is dealing with existing towers...did they always have the hspa+ frequencies or is it some kind of software/hardware upgrade to add it? And if it is something they added after the fact could this not work to also add the other carriers frequencies to existing towers?
Click to expand...

yes they will be able to add the 2100 frequencies just like they will add the 700 frequency. Once its all said and done the frequencies will be like this
850/900/1700/1900/2100 on all AT&T towers with those frequencies carrying 3G/HSPA+/LTE
 
AndreaCristiano said:
yes they will be able to add the 2100 frequencies just like they will add the 700 frequency. Once its all said and done the frequencies will be like this
850/900/1700/1900/2100 on all AT&T towers with those frequencies carrying 3G/HSPA+/LTE
Click to expand...

This is great news then! Hello better coverage!
 
AndreaCristiano said:
...press releases...release... press releases...press release ....press release...magical press release...the release... slide show....facts....
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I had a decently long rebuttal written to this, but getting "facts" from a press release is so laughably naive it's not even worth it.

Have a good one lady. Thanks for the chuckles.
 
alostpacket said:
I had a decently long rebuttal written to this, but getting "facts" from a press release is so laughably naive it's not even worth it.

Have a good one lady. Thanks for the chuckles.
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ok for one I'm not a LADY IM A MAN and two its a matter of the facts as presented. You can do outside research as i have WSJ, Bloomberg, breakers financial, cnet, ars technica etc etc and it all points to a positive
 
Snow_Fox said:
In all fairness there were things I did like about tmobile that I don't like about at&t.. and there are good reasons for them as well..
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That's all well and good but everyone is putting the cart before the horse. There is a crap load of info out there and a shit load of incorrect speculation and fear mongering in here.
 
This is a good thing, that's all I have to say. It seems the ones crying are too damn cheap to broaden their horizons. Trust me, I've been with both companies and you get what you pay for with T-Slobile.

They were going nowhere fast and If you're a T-Slobile customer, you should be thanking your lord that you now have a competent provider with a future.

That is all ... carry on.
 
shawn1224 said:
This is a good thing, that's all I have to say. It seems the ones crying are too damn cheap to broaden their horizons. Trust me, I've been with both companies and you get what you pay for with T-Slobile.

They were going nowhere fast and If you're a T-Slobile customer, you should be thanking your lord that you now have a competent provider with a future.

That is all ... carry on.
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I agree and so does bgr

http://www.bgr.com/2011/03/21/in-proposed-merger-with-att-t-mobile-customers-win/
 
No one can force t mobile customers to do anything they didn't already sign up for. At&t is obligated to respect their current contact prices, and when the contract runs out they can go merrily on their way to sprint or whatever.
 
AndreaCristiano said:
Well we don't know if that's going away. Also tmobile customer service and android team will be part of ATT win
Click to expand...

"android team" lmao!!! those people are complete idiots unless it's just my first time trainwreck. i had to call into that crack team to get what seemed to be a simple question answered and the girl who answered googled my question and emailed me a google link. wtf kind of specialty is that?
 
Darkwarrior006 said:
i doubt it, most of the people are on tmobile because they dont like high prices or cant afford anything else. 95% will go to boost mobile or simply mobile.
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i was a very happy 12 year customer of att until i found tmb. tmb gave me so much more for my money and when i approached att to try and keep me as a customer and beat the rate they basically told me to **** off so i did and leaped at the oppty that tmb was giving me to get so much more for my money. att will do nothing more than continue to **** people by limiting their usage and jack up prices simply because they will now be the Goliath that they were before the break-up. this is just bad for consumers when price is considered. as for coverage, that wont change at all. maybe a little better bandwidth but still if we are all limited on our data plans then i couldnt give a shit about more bandwidth if i know in advance that im gonna get hammered with overage charges for streaming pandora. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD
 
nycdave said:
"android team" lmao!!! those people are complete idiots unless it's just my first time trainwreck. i had to call into that crack team to get what seemed to be a simple question answered and the girl who answered googled my question and emailed me a google link. wtf kind of specialty is that?
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Not them. The corporate team that brought Android and the nexus line to tmobile
 
shawn1224 said:
This is a good thing, that's all I have to say. It seems the ones crying are too damn cheap to broaden their horizons. Trust me, I've been with both companies and you get what you pay for with T-Slobile.

They were going nowhere fast and If you're a T-Slobile customer, you should be thanking your lord that you now have a competent provider with a future.

That is all ... carry on.
Click to expand...

I'm getting unlimited minutes to the PSTN, as well as internationally, in addition to 7Mbs+ data, and unlimited texting, for at least $30/mo less than I would on my AT&T account...and that's with me being on the $10/mo. MediaNet plan. Granted, I'd rather T-Mo operated on a lower frequency, as reception inside buildings has never been an issue throughout the NE for me on AT&T, but AT&T isn't exactly offering any lower priced plans when you bring your own device...YMMV.

If AT&T winds up eliminating T-Mo's EMP plans, I'll probably be moving my T-Mo branded Android phone to my AT&T account. But the thing I hate about AT&T is that they'll nickel & dime you...I really shouldn't be deducted minutes, on a total usage basis, for calls forward to another number (e.g. I forward calls from my AT&T phone to my other phone, and a 10 minute call to my other phone would result in 10 minutes deducted from my AT&T plan minutes :rolleyes:).
 
colnago said:
I really shouldn't be deducted minutes, on a total usage basis, for calls forward to another number (e.g. I forward calls from my AT&T phone to my other phone, and a 10 minute call to my other phone would result in 10 minutes deducted from my AT&T plan minutes :rolleyes:).
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At&t has unlimited mobile to mobile on any network now doesn't it? And what about those rollover minutes? I have like 6000 rollover minutes with a 450 min plan and now with mobile to mobile on any network I rarely use any of my 450 minutes. ;)
 
murphy_31047 said:
At&t has unlimited mobile to mobile on any network now doesn't it? And what about those rollover minutes? I have like 6000 rollover minutes with a 450 min plan and now with mobile to mobile on any network I rarely use any of my 450 minutes. ;)
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I also have rollover minutes, and that's great that you don't use yours, but I do. It only takes an outage and a 5 hour conference call to burn through a monthly allotment in a day. "Rollover" feature still does not justify charging plan minutes for a forwarded call. As for "unlimited" I do not see how unlimited "mobile-to-mobile" is the same as unlimited "mobile-to-any".

And what about those international rates? I definitely don't see an international option that offers "free calling" (i.e. no per minute fees) to international land lines with "my" AT&T plan. ;)
 
The FCC still have to approve all this. I don't think it's going to a cake walk for att. GSM monopoly doesn't sound too economy friendly.
 
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