dslreports logo
 story category
T-Mobile: There Will Be No Backup AT&T Deal
Company Planning to Reboot Business

Back when the AT&T deal was scrapped by a suddenly-and-uncharacteristically pro-consumer FCC and Justice Department, there was some talk that AT&T and T-Mobile might have a backup plan in place. That plan supposedly involved the two companies working on some kind of joint venture or spectrum sharing arrangement. But with T-Mobile getting $4 billion in roaming agreements, spectrum sharing and cash as part of a breakup fee they're apparently willing to go it alone.

T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm told the WSJ's AllThingsD that they're working on rebooting the company after the failed merger, with AT&T nowhere in sight:
quote:
After failing to sell itself to AT&T, T-Mobile is prepared to go it alone, says CEO Philipp Humm. "There is no second AT&T deal around," Humm told AllThingsD in an interview on Tuesday. Humm said the company is still ironing out its plans in the wake of the merger’s derailment. "Now it’s really a question about restarting the business," Humm said. "We will give you more details, probably by the end of the quarter. We are right now finalizing our plans."
What remains unclear is if T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom still wants to exit the U.S. wireless market, or if the AT&T break up fee changed their mind.
view:
topics flat nest 

tmh
@comcastbusiness.net

tmh

Anon

T-Mobile, you're the best

Worldwide UMA, tethering, decent 3G. What's not to like? There's no reason you won't survive. That $4 billion parachute won't hurt either.

jseymour
join:2009-12-11
Waterford, MI

jseymour

Member

Re: T-Mobile, you're the best

T-Mob has some aggressive plans. They're the only one right now that could possibly persuade me to switch from Sprint.

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ

MovieLover76

Member

Re: T-Mobile, you're the best

The bad coverage outside of major cities and interstates keeps me on Verizon, though I will admit their 3G data speeds are better than anyone else's 3G
25139889 (banned)
join:2011-10-25
Toledo, OH

25139889 (banned) to jseymour

Member

to jseymour
and in most areas you can roam- with NO limits on roaming- except for data.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin to tmh

Member

to tmh
said by tmh :

Worldwide UMA, tethering, decent 3G. What's not to like? There's no reason you won't survive. That $4 billion parachute won't hurt either.

HPSA+ 42 is as fast as first-gen LTE.

UMTS Roam
@insightbb.com

UMTS Roam

Anon

One Way to Get Customers

Let's see. A million iPhone users on T-Mobile USA already with just GPRS/Edge. Start the fair priced 850/1900 MHz UMTS out-of-market roaming agreement with AT&T and see what happens. Maybe refarm some available T-Mobile 1900 MHz GSM to UMTS/HSPA for in-market 3G coverage for such users. Watch the AT&T customers leave for T-Mobile. Sorry Apple, no need to pay you anything. Unlocked phones and SIM cards are great for customer choice.
iFail 5G
join:2011-08-03

iFail 5G

Member

Re: One Way to Get Customers

said by UMTS Roam :

Let's see. A million iPhone users on T-Mobile USA already with just GPRS/Edge. Start the fair priced 850/1900 MHz UMTS out-of-market roaming agreement with AT&T and see what happens. Maybe refarm some available T-Mobile 1900 MHz GSM to UMTS/HSPA for in-market 3G coverage for such users. Watch the AT&T customers leave for T-Mobile. Sorry Apple, no need to pay you anything. Unlocked phones and SIM cards are great for customer choice.

What do you mean maybe refarm spectrum?? Its already being done My unlocked AT&T HSPA+ HTC Vivid with only 1900/850/2100mhz H+ is picking up a 1900mhz T-Mobile *4G* signal


mix
join:2002-03-19
Romeo, MI

mix

Member

Re: One Way to Get Customers

Lets see a speedtest.
iFail 5G
join:2011-08-03

iFail 5G

Member

Re: One Way to Get Customers


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

cdru to iFail 5G

MVM

to iFail 5G
said by iFail 5G:

What do you mean maybe refarm spectrum?? Its already being done My unlocked AT&T HSPA+ HTC Vivid with only 1900/850/2100mhz H+ is picking up a 1900mhz T-Mobile *4G* signal

Depending on what rom I run, I can have H, 3G+ or 4G showing on my MT4G from the exact same location. What's shown on the screen doesn't matter much.

djdanska
Rudie32
Premium Member
join:2001-04-21
San Diego, CA

djdanska

Premium Member

Re: One Way to Get Customers

T-Mobile is using part of it's pcs space for HSPA+ and has been adding and requesting 1900mhz hspa(+) support in recent phones. There are iPhones getting over 7Mb/a down on T-Mobile.

fifty nine
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ

fifty nine

Member

Re: One Way to Get Customers

said by djdanska:

T-Mobile is using part of it's pcs space for HSPA+ and has been adding and requesting 1900mhz hspa(+) support in recent phones. There are iPhones getting over 7Mb/a down on T-Mobile.

In which cities? If they do NY/NJ I will be overjoyed so I can dump AT&T.
iFail 5G
join:2011-08-03

iFail 5G to cdru

Member

to cdru
said by cdru:

said by iFail 5G:

What do you mean maybe refarm spectrum?? Its already being done My unlocked AT&T HSPA+ HTC Vivid with only 1900/850/2100mhz H+ is picking up a 1900mhz T-Mobile *4G* signal

Depending on what rom I run, I can have H, 3G+ or 4G showing on my MT4G from the exact same location. What's shown on the screen doesn't matter much.

Yea, they show what the carrier wants them too on stock rom's. Of course in this case AT&T wants it to show *4G* regardless, if it has a UMTS 3G signal.

aelfwyne
join:2004-01-28
Houston, TX

aelfwyne

Member

sigh

I'm not sure why they felt it was a good decision to wind down business in the last year anyway. If they'd acted in shareholder interest, there'd be no need to "reboot" the company. Instead, they basically just said "well, shiznit, nothing we do matters now" and let it go to the dogs.

RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY

RARPSL

Member

Breakup Fee Cash

There is mention in the synopsis of the "cash as part of a breakup fee". This is not cash that will do T-Mobile US any good since it has already been earmarked by Deutsche Telekom to be skimmed off to be used to pay for enhancements of DT's European Network infrastructure. Only the stuff that is unusable for their European Network (such as the roaming agreements) will be left for use by TM-US.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin

Member

Re: Breakup Fee Cash

said by RARPSL:

There is mention in the synopsis of the "cash as part of a breakup fee". This is not cash that will do T-Mobile US any good since it has already been earmarked by Deutsche Telekom to be skimmed off to be used to pay for enhancements of DT's European Network infrastructure. Only the stuff that is unusable for their European Network (such as the roaming agreements) will be left for use by TM-US.

Source?
compton
join:2002-02-08
Brooklyn, NY

compton

Member

Re: Breakup Fee Cash

said by sonicmerlin:

said by RARPSL:

There is mention in the synopsis of the "cash as part of a breakup fee". This is not cash that will do T-Mobile US any good since it has already been earmarked by Deutsche Telekom to be skimmed off to be used to pay for enhancements of DT's European Network infrastructure. Only the stuff that is unusable for their European Network (such as the roaming agreements) will be left for use by TM-US.

Source?

I have read that Deutsche Telekom were expecting to use the cash portion of the break-up fee to booster their European operations. I can't seem to find the source.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

T-Mobile is going nowhere but into the ditch

There is simply no room for them in the USA wireless market as the #4 option. There's probably not even room for Sprint as the #3 long-term. AT&T and Verizon are rapidly becoming the only viable contenders long-term.

The FCC and Justice Dept. maybe thought they were helping competition by killing the T-Mobile merger with AT&T, but they've actually hurt it. T-Mobile was going away anyway, and all they've done now is shot AT&T in the leg. AT&T needed this to stay up there with Verizon. Now they're limping along.

Pro-consumer, my ass.

Wait and see if I'm not right. You've brought this Verizon-dominated world on yourself. Enjoy.

MichaelEvans
@nor-consult.com

MichaelEvans

Anon

Re: T-Mobile is going nowhere but into the ditch

Sadly the only truly consumer move would be to consolidate spectrum and force the carriers to require handsets that can be used among any carrier.

Obligatory car analogy:
The current situation is different axle width cars fueled by different proprietary blends of gas such that you can only run on a single vendor's roads and must buy their vehicle and gas.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

Re: T-Mobile is going nowhere but into the ditch

said by MichaelEvans :

Sadly the only truly consumer move would be to consolidate spectrum and force the carriers to require handsets that can be used among any carrier.

I think you're probably right. I don't think it's going to happen because so much money is involved and so many big players have a stake in the current subsidized locked handset model.

If anyone makes this happen it'll probably be Apple if they decide to toss that bomb onto the table. But I don't know why they would. They are ticking along just fine with their current iPhone deals with the carriers, and sucking up a huge majority of the profit in the market. Why should they blow up that sweet deal?

Google tried to toss that bomb with Nexus and utterly failed. They're going to try again and will probably fail again. Even with all their money in the bank.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

1 recommendation

sonicmerlin to MyDogHsFleas

Member

to MyDogHsFleas
said by MyDogHsFleas:

There is simply no room for them in the USA wireless market as the #4 option. There's probably not even room for Sprint as the #3 long-term. AT&T and Verizon are rapidly becoming the only viable contenders long-term.

The FCC and Justice Dept. maybe thought they were helping competition by killing the T-Mobile merger with AT&T, but they've actually hurt it. T-Mobile was going away anyway, and all they've done now is shot AT&T in the leg. AT&T needed this to stay up there with Verizon. Now they're limping along.

Pro-consumer, my ass.

Wait and see if I'm not right. You've brought this Verizon-dominated world on yourself. Enjoy.

You are so bitter that once I got over the shock of seeing such a die-hard corporate shill slob over AT&T I ended up laughing.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

1 recommendation

34764170 (banned) to MyDogHsFleas

Member

to MyDogHsFleas
You're such a corporate shill it is pathetic.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

Re: T-Mobile is going nowhere but into the ditch

said by 34764170:

You're such a corporate shill it is pathetic.

Whatever. I'd turn it around and say you're such an anti-AT&T bigot it is pathetic.

I try to be an observer of reality. Not a shill for anyone. I think anti-AT&T bigotry blinds many people here to what's really going on.

I have never said AT&T is wonderful. They suck in many ways. They are so slow-moving as to be sloth-like. Their ordering/billing/provisioning processes are stuck in molasses and are frustrating to deal with as a consumer. Is Verizon so much better? I haven't been a customer of them personally but I've read many horror stories here.

I personally dumped AT&T U-verse for Internet and went with TWC DOCSIS 3.0 because it was clear they kicked U-verse's ass. Cheaper, faster. But I will say that AT&T was more reliable. Those dudes know how to build a wired network and manage it. That is in their DNA.

When the next iPhone comes out with Verizon LTE I may well jump to it. Right now my AT&T iPhone is better than the Verizon iPhone, it's faster and more functional. But that may change. (Also the company I work for has chosen Verizon as their partner for wireless, recently.)

I see the handwriting on the wall that the current administration, like you, just wants to kick AT&T's ass, and Verizon will probably get out ahead of AT&T in 2012-2013, due to more spectrum, unless they get stupid with their negotiations with Apple.

All I am saying is, be careful what you wish for and be very aware of unintended consequences. When the government gets involved in the market, you can be guaranteed some of those ugly bastards will pop up. I'm also saying that their attempt to "protect competition" and have a 4th carrier in the market is just stupid and will not work, T-mobile will fade away by the end of 2013 or sooner, mark my words. The merger was the best chance to usefully use T-mobile's assets. They will end up going in a fire sale to someone.
axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC

axus

Member

Re: T-Mobile is going nowhere but into the ditch

I'll be making good use of T-mobile's assets for the next two years, at least.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

Re: T-Mobile is going nowhere but into the ditch

said by axus:

I'll be making good use of T-mobile's assets for the next two years, at least.

Good for you! Let us know how it goes with the "reboot".
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to MyDogHsFleas

Member

to MyDogHsFleas
said by MyDogHsFleas:

You've brought this Verizon-dominated world on yourself. Enjoy.

Even if that's true (and it's not) it's better than living in an AT&T dominated world. At least Verizon is competent. They'll have LTE fully deployed whilst AT&T still has parts of their network that don't even have 3G....
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

1 edit

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

Re: T-Mobile is going nowhere but into the ditch

said by Crookshanks:

Even if that's true (and it's not) it's better than living in an AT&T dominated world. At least Verizon is competent. They'll have LTE fully deployed whilst AT&T still has parts of their network that don't even have 3G....

First, I don't think we live in an AT&T dominated world now, nor would we have with the now defunct T-Mobile merger. I think it would have been approximate parity with Verizon.

That said, I think it's an interesting strategic question. Also I think you have your facts wrong. AT&T's 3G HSPA+ deployment is essentially complete covering 95% plus of the population. AT&T LTE is now rolled out in, I don't know, 25 cities or something? Yes Verizon is ahead of AT&T in LTE because AT&T decided to take an intermediate step with HSPA+, which to me is not a bad strategy.

It's kind of like the whole U-verse vs. FIOS debate, where Verizon decided to go balls out with FTTH and AT&T took a more conservative intermediate step with FTTN. Well, guess what, campers. I've been telling you here for a few years now that AT&T's strategy was probably the winning one. And it turns out I was right, now that Verizon has essentially frozen FIOS deployments, and U-verse is chugging right along, deploying incremental improvements every 6-9 months, and growing just fine. So maybe you should listen to my predictions about where things are going with wireless.
JAQUEBAUER
join:2007-09-20
Fort Lauderdale, FL

JAQUEBAUER to MyDogHsFleas

Member

to MyDogHsFleas
Is there a chance you work for ATT ?
ATT has the worst customer service, treats its employees like slaves, and operates like a business in the throes of bankruptcy. The CEO needs to be fired for allowing the T Mobile penalty buyout fee to be of the magnitude it was. ATT must have thought it had the deal in the bag, and everyone in the Obama regime well paid to approve it. I guess they forgot to pay off the FCC head.
MyDogHsFleas
Premium Member
join:2007-08-15
Austin, TX

MyDogHsFleas

Premium Member

Re: T-Mobile is going nowhere but into the ditch

said by JAQUEBAUER:

Is there a chance you work for ATT ?
ATT has the worst customer service, treats its employees like slaves, and operates like a business in the throes of bankruptcy. The CEO needs to be fired for allowing the T Mobile penalty buyout fee to be of the magnitude it was. ATT must have thought it had the deal in the bag, and everyone in the Obama regime well paid to approve it. I guess they forgot to pay off the FCC head.

Do you really think AT&T or whoever really cares about what goes on here? Conspiracy theory much? Geez.

I'm an AT&T customer only. I work for a large IT company in point of fact, and I post here to learn because I'm interested, it has nothing to do with my job. The debates here help me sharpen my insights and improve my understanding of how things work.

I've transitioned from AT&T U-verse Internet to TWC DOCSIS 3 Internet, because it was cheaper and faster (though less reliable). I may well transition from AT&T Wireless to Verizon later this year when the new iPhones come out.

My observation on AT&T customer service is it's generally OK, the frustration is with AT&T's clunky ordering/billing/provisioning processes. But they are getting better. Compared to Time Warner Cable's customer service they are a lot better.

I doubt that AT&T could have gotten agreement on the deal with T-Mobile at all if there wasn't a large penalty buyout. We'll see how it affects the two going forward. I've made my predictions openly here.

mod_wastrel
anonome
join:2008-03-28

mod_wastrel

Member

Thanks, but...

as a happy and content T-Mo customer, BAU works fine for me--no "reboot" required.

(Business As Usual)

brewtownbear
@sbcglobal.net

brewtownbear

Anon

Break away from the pack...

Partner with US Cellular. Make your customers happy and stop crapping on the loyalty that made you what you were.

Remove that $200 "migration" fee on two year contracts if customers want to migrate to a cheaper plan. This economy sucks, why tie us down with a large fee to change services? We never did before until the A Fee and a Fee merger was announced.

That's just for starters. Oh, and iPhone would be nice with tethering included with your 4G HSPA+ service.

Those are just dreams folks, but can we do it big?
25139889 (banned)
join:2011-10-25
Toledo, OH

25139889 (banned)

Member

Re: Break away from the pack...

tethering is included with TMO- you're crazy if you pay for it. The Hotspot is included in the phone as well- again its free--you only agree to pay for it if your crazy.
chgo_man99
join:2010-01-01
Sunnyvale, CA

chgo_man99

Member

T-Mobile has no 850MHz GSM

thats why I dropped them because in some buildings at&t has better in building penetration. It had a lot more coverage dead zone holes than at&t west of Halsted in Lincoln Park in Chicago.

A year later after switch to them, at&t fixed network in Chicago and had no regrets switching ever since. Got also nice employee discount.

Even if I stayed with T-Mobile, I would not be able to do so, because my work required me to relocate to Eastern Iowa where T-Mobile does not own spectrum. Instead I-Wireless (their partner) does, but it would not allow permanent roaming.

Oh, and T-Mobile's data card service does not allow any domestic roaming at all (yey!) Hell, it even has no 3G/UMTS where I live now, but at&t has.

And don't get me started on i-wireless. its awful! They still have Samsung Galaxy I on sale! huurrraaay!

Bye T-Mobile! Hello AT&T!
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

T-Mobile's "reboot".

I hope that they can figure out a way to get a much larger coverage area that does not involve roaming fees. The only reason I use Verizon instead of T-Mobile is geographic coverage.

•••••••

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

buddahbless

Member

Get more aggressive while your rebranding

With new offers from metropcs giving you 4 phones with unlimited for $100 and now republic wireless now throwing there gloves in the ring, TMO need to shake up the market again, mostly in there prepaid no contract market. Example, new and better than any ATT plan and cheaper than any of the big 3s prepaid options...
$40 unlimited talk, txt, 4g data with 1GB of data before throttle
$50 unlimited talk, txt, 4g data with 3GB of 4g data before throttle
$60 unlimited talk, txt, 4g data with 5GB of 4g data before throttle

Also TMO, you want customers to purchase expensive (smartphone) handsets outright? Add this in as an incentive...
Instead of throttling everyone to 2G ( actually 56k-64k for most) those customers who upgrade and purchase full price or already have a TMO purchased & branded....
4G ( with 42 HSPA compatibility)phone will be throttles to 1 mbps.
4G ( with 21 HSPA compatibility)phone will be throttled to 768k.
3G phone will be throttled to 256k.
2G/feature phones will be limited to there current 2G throttle.
Those with NON TMO smartphones ( aka: unlocked ATT phones) will be given unlimited 2G service.
Simply making TMO favorable over ATT prepaid and there cap/ throttle and all the MVNO on TMOs network.

Also Add a line option for prepaid monthly, and give a $10 discount off the normal rate price... IE: you have the $40 prepaid plan and you add a line the second line will cost $30.giving you 2 unlimited lines for $70 a month, or 3 lines for $100. People are getting tired of this 2 lines for $100 con from the big companies especially when Metropcs is offering 4 unlimited lines for $100.

I think I just created there re-branding plans.

Now just update ASAP the coverage map to show unlimited talk and txt on those ATT towers via your new roaming agreement in areas which currently have no service and you might be able to pull this rabbit out your hat.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Still going to suck

T-Mobile is still going to suck. It will slowly spiral downward, and both it and Sprint will implode upon themselves eventually and be split up and sold to the big two, and some other carrier will be divested out of that mess.

•••
podstolom
join:2010-01-25
Wichita, KS

podstolom

Member

I'm So Unhappy this deal died...

As a former T-Mobile customer, I was looking forward to jumping from VZW to ATT after this deal was done. ATT's LTE phones are configured to use LTE bands 17 (low-700) and band 4 (AWS-1) with fallback to HSPA+ on 850/1900. So now, instead of GAINING AWS spectrum to utilize wider bandwidth channels, ATT LOSES AWS to an HSPA+ company, thereby exaserbating the network fragmentation that exists in this country as opposed to the rest of the world.

Maybe I'm one of the few who saw merit in ATT's claims of increased network efficencies, but their plans to move T-Mo's HSPA service to 850/1900 and utilize their AWS-1 for LTE expansion made perfect sense to me. Not only that, but former T-Mo customers would have had acess to a fully-functional iPhone, as well as a path to LTE.

But thanks to the idocy of consumner outcry, litigous opposition by competitors, and government interference, ATT lost valuable spectrum assets, a bit of cash, and now we've got a T-Mobile with egg on their face, still crappy coverage, and desparate assurances of a comeback from a parent company that clearly wants T-Mobile USA out of it's house, and considering the windfall DT lost for their European expansion plans, I'd bet they are a bunch of unhappy Germans too.

•••

pjcamp
@comcastbusiness.net

pjcamp

Anon

layoffs

So are they now going to rehire all those people they laid off when they were trying to increase their value to AT&T?