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Comments on news posted 2011-03-21 13:46:32: After surprising everybody with their Sunday announcement that they'd be buying T-Mobile for $39 billion, AT&T today began the difficult process of trying to convince the public and regulators that eliminating one of the four major carriers -- while .. ..

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Dagakhan
@verizon.net

Dagakhan to treich

Anon

to treich

Re: Its going happen no matter how many signatures you get

It doesn't REALLY get fun until the Cable and Telephone companies start merging.
mcbigham
Premium Member
join:2004-10-10
Shreveport, LA

mcbigham to treich

Premium Member

to treich
said by treich:

Its going to happen no matter how many signatures you get. Just look at centurylink and qwest? look at comcast and NBC? look at verizon wireless and alltel wireless? only 2 big players I see in wireless is going to be ATT and Verizon.

ATT wireless already bought out:
cingular
Centennial Wireless
now T-Mobile.

if anything happens big would be verizon wireless buys out sprint then verizon would be the biggest wireless carrier.

Cingular was a joint venture between SBC and Bellsouth. Cingular bought AT&T wireless in 2004 not the other way around. SBC bought AT&T Corp. in Oct. 2005 and adopted the AT&T branding. After the acquisition of Bellsouth in Dec. 2006 it was anounced the Cingular would start using the AT&T wireless name.

WiseOldBear
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Premium Member
join:2001-11-25
Litchfield Park, AZ

WiseOldBear

Premium Member

They All Lie, endlessly

All the telcos, regardless of flavor, modality or location lie and lie and lie. The their fanchilds pick it up and spread it endlessly to the far reaches of the universe.
Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA

Sammer

Member

FCC's Last Chance

If the FCC ever wants to have any say about Net Neutrality this is absolutely their last chance. If the FCC approves this without any neutrality requirements the FCC is both powerless and irrelevant.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

1 recommendation

Gbcue to footballdude

Premium Member

to footballdude

Re: Its going happen no matter how many signatures you get

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· p-1hgfxI

HaloFans
join:2006-12-18

HaloFans to treich

Member

to treich

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· p-1hgfxI


Edit: Darn beaten.
fldiver
Premium Member
join:1999-12-27
Jacksonville, FL

fldiver to jus10

Premium Member

to jus10

Re: So glad I just left for Verizon

Ditto on that!
SunnyD
join:2009-03-20
Madison, AL

SunnyD

Member

Someone should point out...

What about those supposed "Lower Prices" in those municipal franchise reforms AT&T got states to pass for UVerse deployments a few years back.

History serves no point if it teaches us nothing.

tileguy
Premium Member
join:2007-08-09
Derry, NH

tileguy

Premium Member

What?

This just can't be good.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 edit

FFH5 to openbox9

Premium Member

to openbox9

Re: AT&T-Mobile

said by openbox9:

As long as you are in a major city, sure TMo may have the most 'robust' nationwide network.

quote:
AT&T offered up a few other arguments for the deal, claiming consumers will see lower prices and better city coverage
If AT&T keeps all the T-Mobile towers in major cities as well as their own, then AT&T coverage will improve markedly in the major cities.

AVITWeb
join:2002-01-11
Williamstown, NJ

AVITWeb to tileguy

Member

to tileguy

Re: What?

They sucked when they were Cingular....
They sucked after the sale and they became AT&T.....
They willl suck that much more when this goes through. Instead of fixing things...Oh, I don't know, like customer service and service that actually keeps a phone call connected, they just buy stuff up to try and hide the fact that they suck!....How does anyone actually pay that company for anything?
It still baffles me that they are still in business.
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to cdru

Member

to cdru

Re: So glad I just left for Verizon

said by cdru:

T-Mobile has always been a predominantly highway and major city provider since it was VoiceStream.

So they get a pass on investing in rural America while Verizon gets ripped for allegedly failing to do the same?
said by cdru:

T-Mobile also hasn't built up an area only to offload it to an inferior sucker alternate carrier who struggles to provide even standard services at a competitive price.

Well, two things I'd say to that:

1) Verizon didn't "build up" any rural areas, they inherited most of them from GTE.

2) I don't know anything about Fairpoint but why does everybody here beat on Frontier as some sort of "inferior" carrier? I've lived in and around Frontier's footprint for most of my life and they've made considerable investments in my area to bring DSL to rural areas. I've seen Frontier deploying remote terminals all over the place around these parts. I've yet to see Verizon do the same. Verizon doesn't even bother deploying RTs to reach the suburban areas that are out of range, never mind the rural ones. There are whole neighborhoods in Binghamton that can't get DSL. I can't say the same thing for any of the areas served by Frontier around these parts.
daveberstein
join:2002-07-15
New York, NY

daveberstein

Member

Dave Burstein Important Clarification

Karl picked up my thoughts on AT&T spectrum slightly differently than I meant to imply. I wrote

"Does AT&T need the T-Mobile spectrum? (no - 70-90% of the AT&T
spectrum capacity is currently unused.)"

not 70-90% of the spectrum. I including in that figure a great deal of spectrum that is currently "used" with older technologies but carries far less than it would with current technologies already being deployed by AT&T, Verizon and everyone else.

I'm working from a comparison of what the spectrum could carry with current technology (LTE, HSUPA+) compared with the capacity in use. That's 1.5-2.5 megabits/megahertz, depending on whether you're measuring average versus edge of cellsite, fixed antennae, etc.

That's 120-300 megabits in most markets. Let's call it 200 megabits average.

Currently, the heavy majority of AT&T cellsites are still served by T-1's carrying a total of less than 12 megabits, often far less. It's typically used for "up to 7.2 megabit" data and lots of voice. Some percentage - surprising high, but not 70-90%, is currently unused.(?20-60% on average as a wild guess, but that's unprovable without internal AT&T data.)

Much of the spectrum is currently used for voice, using older technologies that are far less efficient than today's. Glen Campbell of Merrill Lynch estimates that by refarming that spectrum and using it efficiently (if only for voice) you double the carrying capacity. Similar is true for all the spectrum being used for 2G and even 3G data. They only use 10-?50% of the capacity of the spectrum using today's technologies.

Carriers around the world have begun this "re-farming" for more efficiency, including UK and Canada. Everyone has it in their plans because it's more efficient and hence cheaper. Sprint intends to do that with the Nextel spectrum and AT&T has discussed similar. It takes time, because you have to change out all the handsets, but using existing spectrum more efficiently saves so much money the carriers are doing it almost universally.

Much spectrum lies purely fallow, about enough to carry us without upping capex about 5 years (FCC figure, badly calculated) or 10+ years (Ivan Seidenberg of Verizon and most technical people as opposed to lobbyists.) Most of the rest is used by older 2G and 3G tech (both voice and data) and has 2-4x the capacity with today's technology.

Hence, T (and almost every one else) is using only 10-30% of the capacity of their spectrum. They know this and are rapidly upgrading backhaul (2010-2011 primary problem) and radios. They are discussing plans to switch users from 2G voice - still what's in 3G and 4G handsets - to 4G voice over IP/LTE over the next few years.

AT&T's announced 2011 backhaul upgrades - from 20% GigE fiber or 100 meg microwave to 70% - will yield 500% more capacity for data this year alone. »fastnetnews.com/a-wirele ··· -in-2011 They are using it to go from 7.2 meg to 20 and 40 meg HSUPA+ and LTE.

A 300% improvement in bandwidth implies 75% of capacity was unused.
gorehound
join:2009-06-19
Portland, ME

gorehound to Gbcue

Member

to Gbcue

Re: AT&T-Mobile

Time for Ma Bell and I will be very surprised if our government stands up for the people of the USA.
FrontirCynic
join:2006-10-25
Long Beach, CA

FrontirCynic to Sammer

Member

to Sammer

Re: FCC's Last Chance

This is just a big middle finger to the FCC. Att knows it will win this. It pays a penalty to T Mobile if ATT cannot buy off regulators. Me thinks they will.

»www.bloomberg.com/news/2 ··· bid.html

Show me a merger this big where consumers truly benefited

DataDoc
My avatar looks like me, if I was 2D.
Premium Member
join:2000-05-14
Hedgesville, WV

DataDoc

Premium Member

Isn't this exactly why they broke up Ma Bell?

From 1 to 7 to 3 to 1 again?

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

cdru to Crookshanks

MVM

to Crookshanks

Re: So glad I just left for Verizon

said by Crookshanks:

So they get a pass on investing in rural America while Verizon gets ripped for allegedly failing to do the same?

They don't get a complete pass, but T-Mobile is a fraction of the size of Verizon. It's not unreasonable to expect major cities to get service first, smaller cities, major towns, smaller towns, then rural. T-mobile has a large amount to grow even in major towns, let alone smaller towns and then rural. Verizon in comparison already has a much larger footprint and while metropolitan areas may get updated towers or upgrades, to continue growing their footprint Verizon is much closer to spreading out in more rural areas.
said by Crookshanks:

1) Verizon didn't "build up" any rural areas, they inherited most of them from GTE.

So most of Verizon's current rural coverage is just from GTE? So they haven't replaced, upgraded, or added additional towers throughout their coverage area? It's just been pretty stagnant for the previous 11 years?

2) I don't know anything about Fairpoint but why does everybody here beat on Frontier as some sort of "inferior" carrier?

It's not just Frontier. Fairpoint had trouble meeting DSL availability that was a condition of the merger approval. They also had various E911 snafus. Both Hawaii Telecom and Fairpoint filed for bankruptcy within a few years.

Frontier recently, after telling regulators that they weren't going to cut services, that they could provide the same level of service that Verizon had, and that they were committed to remaining competitive jacked up cable rates 46% and install fees to $500 for FiOS customers. They also want to transition people from FiOS TV to DirecTV. Frontier also usually ranks at the bottom of the Good/Bad/Ugly list based on reviews here at DSLReports. They also, until relatively recently, had a 5GB cap in their AUP.

If lying to regulators, not providing basic required services, poor customer support, raising rates and fees by an obscene amount, and generally poor reviews don't qualify for inferior carrier status, I'm not quite sure what does.

I've seen Frontier deploying remote terminals all over the place around these parts. I've yet to see Verizon do the same. Verizon doesn't even bother deploying RTs to reach the suburban areas that are out of range, never mind the rural ones. There are whole neighborhoods in Binghamton that can't get DSL. I can't say the same thing for any of the areas served by Frontier around these parts.


Alcohol
Premium Member
join:2003-05-26
Climax, MI

Alcohol to WeSRT4

Premium Member

to WeSRT4

Re: Sprint

Sprint will gain hundreds of thousands of new customers when they release the EVO 3D this summer.
neftv
join:2000-10-01
Broomall, PA

neftv

Member

New commercial

I guess now that AT&T guy will be piggy backing the pretty girl in the dress when Verizon starts to make their commercials.

backfeed
is giving feedback
join:2002-12-16
Peru, IN

backfeed to old_wiz_60

Member

to old_wiz_60

Re: Lower prices? HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

said by old_wiz_60:

Coming from AT&T it is the funniest thing I've heard in weeks.

The merger will go through cause AT&T owns enough Congressmen and key people in the regulatory agencies. There will be "conditions" that are supposed to protect consumers but the conditions will be so weak or ignored as to be worthless.

It will definitely mean higher prices and more fees.

Anytime you hear a wireless provider or cable provider or internet provider talk about "lower prices" you know you are hearing lies.

ATT recently swallowed Centennial Wireless. The service and coverage has gone to crap just at the same time they "got all the towers switched to AT&T 3G" imagine that!
egilbe
join:2011-03-07

egilbe to daveberstein

Member

to daveberstein

Re: Dave Burstein Important Clarification

So it's not a bandwidth issue the reason AT&T is going to data caps? It's a money grab.

Alcohol
Premium Member
join:2003-05-26
Climax, MI

Alcohol to Zulu3

Premium Member

to Zulu3

Re: $39 Billion

They have a lot of cash in hand. They can improve the infrastructure but why do that they can charge overage fees.
Alcohol

Alcohol to Mr Matt

Premium Member

to Mr Matt

Re: Will their service turn to crap during the transition?

Simple answer: Yes.

mech1164
I'll Be Back
join:2001-11-19
Lodi, NJ

mech1164 to LostInWoods

Member

to LostInWoods

Re: So glad I just left for Verizon

said by LostInWoods:

The question is whether the FTC still has a spine.

One word NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FrontirCynic
join:2006-10-25
Long Beach, CA

FrontirCynic

Member

Do something other than DSLR comment

FCC comment page
»fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/u ··· ?z=4iujo

or email it ecfs@fcc.gov

"dept of Justice Antitrust Division"

dont forget to cc your senators (as long as they are Dems) Otherwise forget it

drew
Radiant
Premium Member
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA

drew

Premium Member

Thrilled

I am thrilled to see that T-Mobile customers. will finally receive the robust service offered by AT&T
sparc
join:2006-05-06

sparc

Member

t-mobile usa is not a threat to anything

"the deal is largely about reducing competition and preventing T-Mobile from evolving into a serious threat.

T-mobile USA is never going to be a serious threat. They have way too many gaps in their coverage. There's not much sign they'll ever move to LTE at this rate while milking 3G. It's been a financial drag on it's owner DT who desperately wants to get rid of it. DT knows that T-mobile usa's value will continue to deteriorate in the coming years as they don't know how to manage the company.

I'm very mixed on the merger as a T-mobile customer. I'm not happy that it's going forward, but the better overall coverage with ATT will probably end up swaying me in its' direction. If they can retain inexpensive t-mobile plans, then i'll probably stay for the long haul. I just hope the government gets off their butt and puts enough conditions on the merger to keep t-mobile customers from getting totally screwed in the long run.

The most important thing here is that at least T-mobile customers didn't get screwed into merging with Sprint. After the Nextel merger, what sane person would want to join a company like this. It's all a matter of which devil that T-mobile customers want to join. I'd rather be with a company like ATT that has a chance at pulling off the merger.

SrsBsns
join:2001-08-30
Oklahoma City, OK

SrsBsns

Member

Goodbye video without WIFI

I guess AT&T didn't like the fact T-Mobile could do video conferencing without WIFI. Say so long to that unless you pay an extra fee just to use it and it will count toward your data cap.
sparc
join:2006-05-06

sparc to posthaste

Member

to posthaste

Re: Just Sayin'

at best you can call this a duopoly between AT&T and Verizon

All the minor players like Sprint end up going bankrupt and their assets sold off to some minor players.
corinthos
join:2007-10-09

corinthos

Member

:(

It actually makes me sick to my stomach that this is happening. I wish it would get shot down but I have little faith in that.

Most likely they will give us lower prices. It will be in the form of low sized data plans with plenty of overage, charging for speeds or something shady.

I'm keeping Tmobile until it goes through then going to a different carrier the day the switch it made.
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