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t-mobile/at&t merger question??

buckeyedroid

buckeyedroid

Well-Known Member
i know that no one knows exactly what is going to happen, but i am looking
for someone that might have a little insight. i am thinking about moving
to t-mobile and getting the g2x. i am worried about what repercusions
this could have if the merger goes thru. can we lose our phone numbers/will
the g2x still work/will our contracts and prices we pay stay the same but
we will be on at&t. as i stated, i know no one has the definitive answers, but
i just feel like i need some guidance, would it be considered stupid to move to
t-mobile at this point, could it be a dumb move??
any insight would be appreciated, thanks.
 
I have been on Tmo for about 5 years. I just re-upped for 2 more. I suspect by the time my contract is up Tmo will be no more and I will be grandfathered into AT&T. I expect my contract terms to be honored by AT&T, but I also think there is a chance they will give me a 'accept the new price or end your contract early' option.

I have a G2x on order that should work fine after the merger. I don't see any big reasons to not sign on with Tmo, but I am sure others might come up with some.
 
They can't just change the contract you signed, if they do so you have the option of ending said contract without penalty to yourself
 
Probably the biggest risk stemming from the merger will be that the FCC and/or the states will request that AT&T or T-Mo sell some of their regional infrastructure to facillitate better competition. If that happens, and there's no guarantee that it will, then your account could potentially move to a different carrier.
 
Martimus answer above is more educated, Mine is a good theory with a real world situation at the end. But think of it this way. Every week the merger is being debated, the odds double that the T Mobile jenga collapse will happen. Logically thinking, behind the scenes the CEO of ATT has got to be taking a little more control day by day of t mobile business decisions as the odds of merger increase. Sign new contract now. and keep signing every month until T Mo's plans will suddenly start mirroring. ATT, which will happen long before the official announcement.

Now, After my rant, to your question. nothing should change, if you don't increase your minutes, miss a payment, cancel your phone insurance, etc. You need to make sure you follow your side of the contract to a "T".... When ATT bought the cell provider my father used, just last year, they honored his agreement, and even grandfathered him for life if he doesnt change anything. If you break the terms of the contract it voided, and ATT will then own your youngest child's soul for 2gb of data every month.
 
All of this is why I switched to Simple Mobile. A very low price monthly and they piggy back off of the existing carriers network etc. SO no matter what happens with the merger I will still have coverage with my G2x. I left ATT because I was tired of the iPhone and the Apple iron fist. Having fun with the droid and can honestly say except for the battery life I am converted!
 
Martimus said:
Probably the biggest risk stemming from the merger will be that the FCC and/or the states will request that AT&T or T-Mo sell some of their regional infrastructure to facillitate better competition. If that happens, and there's no guarantee that it will, then your account could potentially move to a different carrier.
Click to expand...
When a company is forced to sell infrastructure, that is all they have to do: Sell physical things like towers and cables. They are not required to give a number of their subscribers to another company. That would be a violation of the contract the subscribers signed with the company.

When regulators approve a merger, they usually do so with conditions, one of which is usually that the buying company honor all existing contracts. This means that you will get to keep whatever plan you have as long as you do not make any changes. But all bets are off if you decide to change plans.

While you will be able to keep your unlimited everything for $80 plan if you choose, AT&T may bribe you with a free Android phone with a quad core CPU and 2G or RAM if you change to one of their existing plans. Or they may do what Cingular did to AT&T customers and degraded the blue network to the point that people were forced to switch just to get usable service.
 
i'm honestly worried for existing tmobile customers. cingular used to get perfect service where i live and at&t didn't. so i figured that once that merge happened, at&t would get better service. nope. now only tmobile and sprint have service where i am.
 
The merge would be a disaster for Tmobile customers and for the consumer. Cell phone rates would go up for everyone because there would be less fair competition. Atet is known for having the highest rates in the cell phone industry. They like to rip customers off and in turn if this deal went thrue they would destroy tmobile and the customers who havnt already left because of this possible merger would also leave.
 
Have to agree with Jimbo... ATT is HORRIBLE... Its about our only option here in rural america.. but still horrible to be stuck with.. They rip customers off and dont mind doing it...
 
Back when I was under AT&T contract they would ALWAYS screw up the bill.. It would never be what i had signed up for.. They would tack on data charges and I had called and had all data turned off because back in 2005 we really didnt have smart phones like today and data wasnt needed. The last bill I got was $1500.00 and i finally had inough. Now I have carried a G1 or G2 with AT&T's $50.00 unlimited talk, text, and data plan (Go Phone).. Just never was pleased with their billing mistakes and lack of competition in southeast arkansas.. They took full advantage of the fact that their was no other carriers to choose from. Now Verizon has some coverage here, but their coverage is sketchy at best.. So we are still stuck with AT&T and just have to make the best out of it...
 
I wouldn't say At&t is the most expensive, but is close to Big Red Verizon. Thing is, I would much have the coverage of Verizon than at&suck. ...also Verizon has better CS. Pay to play I guess.

Me, if T-Mobile fails, which is still some time away, I would be going to boost more than likely and just deal with the crappier service, but much lower prices. Heck, might go back to a dumbphone.

Even if this merger fails, I believe T-Mobile would be done for with someone buying them up, or just all together failing and closing up shop. Doubt that would happen, been wrong before though, lol!
 
I have been running an unlocked T Mobile branded G1 for almost 2 years and recently bought an unlocked T Mobile branded G2 and I use the AT&T $50.00 unlimited talk, text and data prepaid... I havent had any problems, there is no bill so that eliminated the billing errors AT&T has.. and except for the fact that just bought the phone off ebay quickly and didnt realize that I couldnt use the 3G band things arent going too bad.. I will never ever sign another contract with AT&T.. Once they locked me in they began hammering me with every kind of charge they could dream up and obviously couldnt add or take directiion as far as TURN OFF DATA so i wouldnt incur data charges, but they charged me anyway.. and internet was disabled on purpose at my request by them... UGH.. just make me sick thinkin back about them days!!
 
welder1973 said:
I have been running an unlocked T Mobile branded G1 for almost 2 years and recently bought an unlocked T Mobile branded G2 and I use the AT&T $50.00 unlimited talk, text and data prepaid... I havent had any problems, there is no bill so that eliminated the billing errors AT&T has.. and except for the fact that just bought the phone off ebay quickly and didnt realize that I couldnt use the 3G band things arent going too bad...
Click to expand...

I've been running my T-Mobile branded Defy on AT&T's MediaNet plan, w/3G connection, for the past year or so...no issues. It seems that the new T-Mobile HTC Amaze may also support AT&T's 3G band(s) as well.
 
I have been wondering about all this myself but got word its not going to happen FCC is not going to let AT&T buy out Tmobile, don't know how true it is, haven't heard anything else about it, or news on it.
 
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