AT&T Acquiring T-Mobile

A shame. T-Mobile treated me pretty well over the years. And I was loyal to them. I won't be an AT&T customer a second longer than I can help it.

Sprint, here I come.

I don't know if Sprint will be my destination, but I'm not looking forward to writing checks to AT&T either.

Verizon is no better.

What will you do when Verizon buys Sprint in reaction to AT&T T-Mobile deal?

Bite your keyboard.

Wow... 33 million people just got screwed..... That has to be the biggest gang-rape on record.

Funny...

I once worked for a company called Brightpoint, most likely your cellular widget come from their warehouse.... I worked as a regional manager teaching system integrators, VAR's and advanced wireless dealers about "Advanced Wireless Devices and Services" i.e. BlackBerry, Symbol, Intermec, Perlego, the first Windows phones and whatnot.....

I had a smart phone from every carrier, Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon with the first HTC Windows phone, Palm, Blackberry, Nokia E65 or something or the other.

In all the major cities service was usually about the same. Dropped calls here and there but otherwise no complaints. I preferred the Palm till the folks at RIM bought me tickets to the Blueman Group in Las Vegas..... Fired Palm like a cheap high school girlfriend.

Cingular (Now AT&T) was a nightmare to work with professionally. Just a real pack of jerks. Verizon was marginally better.

Sprint was good. Nice group and had the stuff together but always seemed to shoot themselves in the foot.

TM was awesome. Paid their commissions quickly and very helpful.

Billing, commissions and activations with Verizon and Cingular was a total nightmare.

Now that AT&T will gobble up T-Mobile I expect things to run like they always have at AT&T, sheety.....

Wash your mouth out with soap Uncle Sam!

Resurrect Judge Harold Greene?

As a longtime T-Mobile customer my reaction was "Aww [bleep]!".

I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but AT&T was unquestionably the worst of the big 4 (now 3). I probably can't go anywhere until the ETF expires but after that I'll be moving off to a sensible provider.

The way I look at it, the one provider who had decent customer service was just butchered so there's no reason to move to VZ and have a better network.

My reaction was more dire, »nooooooooooooooo.com/

Mine too I am in a contract till 10/12 hmmm what to do.

Seriously, I almost feel sick to my stomach. We finally get the cool phones and the good network on top of T-mo customer service, and all of a sudden WHAM, we get hit by the death star. Plus, comparable service on AT&T will be significantly more. And my personal favorite, I can't wait for the dropped calls.

I feel the exact same way. I'll probably pay to get out of my contract and move to Sprint. The worst part is that I frequently travel internationally and will have to carry two phones now.

AT&T will never get a dime of my money ever again.

Yeah

I'm not surprised the least. I always thought that since AT&T and T-Mobile use similar technology, this would be a better fit than a Sprint merger.

Once this merger goes through, it would make little sense to bother to unlock a GSM phone for U.S. use. With a choice of picking between AT&T or AT&T, what's the point?

For pre-paid T-Mobile Gold Rewards, I guess a customer can still count on that plan for at least two years. It will take a year for the merger to happen, so just before the merger buy a refill to extend your minutes for another year.

With less competition prices will rise. Both T-Mobile and AT&T stores, along with their employees, will be screwed. With so many of both stores so close to each other, there can't be room for them all. Stores will end up closing.

merger is expected to close within 12 months. So keeping that for 2 years isn't an option if they plan on moving things this quick. And both being GSM it won't take much to move around if their billing systems are similar. And they could pull a VZW with that- run 2 billing systems when it comes down to it. VZW does this and has been for over 10years with all of their buyouts and such. How do you think they've managed to move Alltel's network in so quickly? ATT has its ups and downs. The ups is having the $$$ to expand out and offer more services which TMO currently lacks in a lot of areas.

And even if you buy your prepaid minutes right before the move over; they can force you to an ATT phone. Why? Because its a prepaid phone and its not subject to being honored. They can kill the service at any time. I can see TMO killing the PrePaid side of TMO and keeping the Flex Pay as that is where TMO has its customers. ATT will like those customers. They pretty much already offer the same thing on the GO! Phone brand.

And less competition? They really don't compete. Prices are the same across the board. The only thing TMO does is offers unlimited data on its phones and breaks down the billing prices. Other than that. They NEVER compete. ATT will keep the TMO stores open as T doesn't have many of their own stores like other carriers. That is a HUGE downside of T. Employees won't get screwed as they'll need those current TMO employees to handle all 130million customers that the combined company would have. You are NOT going to ever be able to support that many customers with ATT's current call center load. Not even VZW could have done it; and they even kept Alltel centers open.

The only thing T could do that would help them with the store issue is BETTER TRAIN TMO Employees and teach them that if they want to brush their hair- you do it OFF the sales floor and NOT on it in front of a customer that you're talking to (TMO employees are VERY well known for that issue). T could also CLOSE all of their agent stores and keep pushing through corp stores since they're able to offer more services- U-Verse and everything else. And the iPhone not all agents are allowed to sell the iPhones either.

Verizon has 1 billing system, the difference is they actually hire competent IT folks to make the transition into the Verizon system as smooth as possible.

no VZW has more than one billing system and always will. Their IT staff? LMAO! if that's what you call them. they can't even migrate in Michigan's Alltel network into their system without it crashing.

The CSR's in Dublin are the only ones that have access to the many systems. Why do you think that call center has NEVER closed and is ONE of the few that VZW still owns and operates???? That same call center that VZW operates out of there USED to be owned by Dobson's Cellular One/AirTouch before VZW took them. When that happened VZW moved from their offices and expanded into that same billing. Ever been there to see the systems?

East, West, and Omni?

Verizon, billing, and competent don't belong together in the same sentence.

There are tons of t-mobile stores in the cities that I go to. Maybe there isn't that many where you are. T-Mobile is always just a block away from AT&T it seems.

Really? Are you sure about that? On T-Mobile I get unlimited anytime calling, unlimited text messaging, and unlimited data on my Android phone for $79/month. How much is the same thing on AT&T? Last time I checked (about 2 months ago) it would be about $140/month. On Verizon? About $120/month. On Sprint? About $110/month.

Does that look like "prices are the same across the board"? With this merger, prices are only going to go up, that's what AT&T does. They frak everything they touch.

And what incentive do OEMs have to offer anything but AT&T-only GSM frequencies on their devices. No reason to unlock since you can't use it anywhere else!

AAwww sh.. I left AT&T 2 years ago and I've enjoyed T-Mo a lot. They're cheaper than AT&T ($20 unlimited SMS vs. $30 for ATT). Their family plan is also $10 cheaper. No fees to turn your phone into a wifi Hot spot. They let you unlock your phone if traveling overseas. To top it off, I get really high speeds on my Android phone.

Damn, this gonna suck. This is starting to look a lot like the internet access market: one big giant cartel. Wireless providers are going to compete even less than now (not that they were doing much to begin with). We're just going to have to pay more for less service.

The land of free markets is turning into the land of monopolies. We could take a few lessons from Europe.

I just extended my contract a couple weekends ago to get a cheaper G2... Looks like I should have just bought one unsubsidized. This news burns my bacon and now I'm stuck in a contract til 2013. Terrible news indeed. I too am a long-time customer and couldn't be more disappointed.

Yep. I'm very disappointed. I'll be shopping for a new service. I don't want anything to do with AT&T.

sucks big timee...i really dong care for 3g/4g bs, is that really needed just for weather updates??? thats what i use my pda for i have atm..

either way, w/e it does switch over since i have been out of contr since 08, att&t will force me over and when tht does happen, im leaving to sprint where my employ has discounts

AT&T going to take over the market or what?

Will the DOJ & FCC approve this deal?

Will Verizon now buy Sprint/Clearwire to combine the CDMA and Wimax converting to LTE crowd? Leaving only 2 major wireless providers in US - AT&T & Verizon.

"This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nations future,

And limiting everything. Future might be bright but wont be that bright.

Nope...not going to limit anything...just charge more for it that is all.

what i don't get is that I thought att 3g did not work on tmboile 3g and vice versa. what good is tmobile's spectrum for att? can att just flip a switch and light up all tombile antennas for att?

They will use it for LTE. T-mobile 3g won't work after a year.

Wow. Didn't see this coming.

This is bull shit now were down to 1 GSM provider.

Exactly! This shouldn't be legal

Well, that sucks, to put it straight out there.

I switched from AT&T a few years back to T-Mobile pre-paid. Saved money AND I was able to get coverage in my home. Unlike AT&T.

Well, there goes that. 12 more months of bliss I suppose until it morphs into AT&T-Mobile .. HA HA HA!!!

Time to re-evaluate I suppose...bummer.

but it wont be at&t will problem spend a billion or so dollors lobbying for it maybe throw in wimpy conditions

I am just in shock, so I guess that means there is no more GSM competition out there.

I wonder how things will change.

Damn, it's March 20th

I left AT&T for T-Mobile and actually got better service. I wonder how this pans out now...

So post-merger, do they mothball the AWS network, and stop selling AWS phones?

Any bets?

2 GB caps for everyone! Yay!

If I'm not mistaken, they can't enforce that cap for legacy customers until their contract it up... Right?

Sure they can. Read the contract. They can change it whenever they want.

The only "good" news is that if they did this you would have a get out of jail free card with regards to the contract.

I wonder what is going to happen to their 3g frequencies (since each support different frequencies). Phones normally only work with one of the carrier's 3g frequency.

Are they going to support both?

I'm sure that if AT&T is willing to pay $39B for T-Mobile, they won't mind spending another $1B to buy whatever votes they'll need to get it approved. I'm sure $1.85M per member of Congress is above fair market value for a vote these days.

Does this mean that T-mobile users can get the iphone?

I guess Deutsche Telekom decided it was easier to bail on the US market. This is horrible for T-Mobile customers.

At this rate, we will be back to 1984, when AT&T had 100% of telecom market. Rare that I as a free-market capitalist ask for government intervention, but I hope that regulators put a stop to this merger. I cannot see any scenario where this is positive for humanity in any way, except for the board members of AT&T and Deustch Telecom.

Is 4G on the fast track for ATT now?

The only reason for AT&T to buy T-Mobile is to squash competition. No way in hell this should be approved by regulators (though we know it will be).

Mods, please delete.

This one too.

NV

This as well.

I wonder what Gbcue thinks about this?