Any thoughts on the AT&T-Mobile deal?

 

It will be certainly interesting to see how this shakes out when all the federal hurdles get jumped... and politicians "contributed to" in order to garner support...

The next year as 4G technology starts to be widely available from several providers across the country will make things interesting enough without this deal. And to witness the sea-change in the wireless industry in terms of the technology alone is awesome.

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*
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Any thoughts on the AT&T-Mobile deal?

I think everyone with T-Mobile wiii see their rate increase and to match what AT&T has on their plans now.

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johnm405 660 & MSS&T

A long road ahead--

They have to get past the regulators and politicians -- and you can bet that every politician is going to be squeezing them for something. The shakedown is going to be shameful and unfortunately expected.

How do you budget and document these items for closing? Are they part of buyer's due diligence? Or are they part of seller's representations and warranties that they've greased the skids sufficient to allow the deal to close? Please see Schedule J-3 for political contributions required to meet closing conditions?

bob in drizzly silicon valley

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows

Does this mean T-Mobile

Does this mean T-Mobile users will start dropping calls too? smile

Just read this form

Just read this from internet.

By PETER SVENSSON
The Associated Press
updated 44 minutes ago 2011-03-21T14:09:53
Share Print Font: +-NEW YORK — AT&T says that if its deal to buy T-Mobile USA goes through, T-Mobile subscribers with "3G" phones will need to replace those to keep their wireless broadband service working.

AT&T Inc. on Sunday said it had agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. If approved by regulators, the deal would close about a year from now.

AT&T said Monday that it in the year after the closing, it plans to rearrange how T-Mobile's cell towers work. The spectrum they use for third-generation services, or 3G, will be repurposed for 4G, which is faster.

That would leave current T-Mobile phones without 3G. They would need to be replaced with phones that use AT&T's 3G frequencies. AT&T said it had factored the cost of replacement phones into the total cost of the acquisition.

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Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

I Hate It

I absolutely hate it and hope the regulators send the merger to the scrap heap. As long as I have had a cellphone I have been with T-Mobile because I did not want to get screwed with high prices and low minutes. AT&T and VZW are the worst offenders in the price/value ratio (just like the largest banks have the worst fees and interest rates). I have an EM+ (Even More-Plus) plan with T-Mobile that gives me 500 anytime minutes with unlimited nights and weekends for $29.99/month. I would be lucky if I could that deal from either AT&T or VZW for $45 or more. I rarely, if ever, use half my monthly minutes but I like knowing I am safe from overages in case of an emergency. Plus I have been out of contract for five years now and have no desire to take out another contract.

AT&T says the merger will save $40 billion dollars. If so, why do all of us T-Mobile customers know we will not see any of that savings and will be told to bend over? VZW and AT&T price their products roughly the same and Sprint never impressed me after I had a phone through work with Sprint that I could never get customer service for.

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I support the right to keep and arm bears.

Wave Goodbye

Well, as the T-mobile group joins ATT (if it happens), I will be glad to wave as I pass from ATT. Pretty fed up with the fact that there are parts of my house that drops calls on ATT.

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It is not a sign of weakness to need other people; it is a sign of strength to have them!

Olagopily..

I think I spelt it correctly. I hope this doesn't go through, because then AT&T and Verizon will have 80% of the wireless subscribers. What does that mean, less competition. I guess now-a-days if you can't beat them, buy them.

Down to three nationwide cell carriers

As a Verizon customer, I still don't like this. If the deal goes through, in contrast to having more enriched politicians, we'll be left with only three nationwide carriers, only one of them on GSM. That can't be good for prices and services.

I have a T-Mobile Pay-as-you-go Account

I don't talk or text much. Spent a total of $125 in phone expenses in the last year, including $25.00 for a new phone. AT&T probably is going to boot customers like me. Guess I'll have to find another carrier if AT&T doesn't offer PAYG accounts.

Not likely to ever have issues for texting while driving! wink

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Garmin nüvi 3597LMTHD, 3760 LMT, & 255LMT, - "Those who wish for fairness without first protecting freedom will end up with neither freedom nor fairness." - Milton Friedman

I have AT&T wireless and dsl...

....and they're expensive, unreliable and atrocious in tech support. Who thinks that by being bigger and more grotesque in size and bureaucracy that'll somehow improve?

Given our government is the worst that money can buy, I have no expectation the merger will be stopped.

GC

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Nuvi 350, GPS Map 76CX

Kill the Deal

I prefer having more choices.

I Hate it

Aardvark wrote:

I absolutely hate it and hope the regulators send the merger to the scrap heap. As long as I have had a cellphone I have been with T-Mobile because I did not want to get screwed with high prices and low minutes. AT&T and VZW are the worst offenders in the price/value ratio (just like the largest banks have the worst fees and interest rates). I have an EM+ (Even More-Plus) plan with T-Mobile that gives me 500 anytime minutes with unlimited nights and weekends for $29.99/month. I would be lucky if I could that deal from either AT&T or VZW for $45 or more. I rarely, if ever, use half my monthly minutes but I like knowing I am safe from overages in case of an emergency. Plus I have been out of contract for five years now and have no desire to take out another contract.

AT&T says the merger will save $40 billion dollars. If so, why do all of us T-Mobile customers know we will not see any of that savings and will be told to bend over? VZW and AT&T price their products roughly the same and Sprint never impressed me after I had a phone through work with Sprint that I could never get customer service for.

I basically have the same plan as you but with 550 minutes and it cost me $59.99 per month and I get all the dropped call I can use.If they are going to save money they need to spend it on more towers for better coverage.

.

Part of this is due to the shareholders being offered a premium value on those stocks.

Michael Douglas summarized today's state of capitalism best in the movie, "Wall Street" with the line, "Greed is good".

The current hierarchy is:

• shareholders,
• corporations,
• politicians,
• everyone else

No wonder the world is in such a mess.

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nüvi 3790T | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable ~ JFK

I dislike this deal. I hope

I dislike this deal. I hope it is killed. It can't be consumer friendly at all.

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http://www.poi-factory.com/node/21626 - red light cameras do not work

Look at this

mdh31951 wrote:

If they are going to save money they need to spend it on more towers for better coverage.

You may get that! This is pretty cool tech!

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/21/technology/light_radio/index...

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nüvi 3790T | Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable ~ JFK

Deal will probably go forward after some debate

Plus side for consumer is that... well maybe expanded coverage for GSM devices and a standard "4G" solution. Downside is the obvious drop in competition.

Look for talks between Verizon and Sprint to start.

Been a T-Mobile customer for about 6 years

Been a T-Mobile customer for about 6 years now. Have two Blackberry's and a Sidekick. 1500 shared minutes, two Blackberry data plans, unlimited text on Sidekick and one Blackberry. Paying about $245. I currently have unlimited tethering which is why I stayed with T-Mobile. I believe everyone else charges extra for this. I know VZW charges extra for this and to turn the GPS on for something that should already be free.

Guess I'll be getting ripped in the back side more or getting rid of a phone or two.

Looks like Stright Talk

Looks like Stright Talk looking good at Walmart at 45 dollars a month.

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Charlie. Nuvi 265 WT and Nuvi 2597 LMT. MapFactor Navigator - Offline Maps & GPS.

I'll stick with Verizon

I'll stick with Verizon

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nüvi 750 & 760

Not good...

Nothing more than an increase in fees, as the available providers goes down. The consumer NEVER wins with this, period. Long live big business... sad :(

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Garmin Nuvi 885T

I agree

jale wrote:

As a Verizon customer, I still don't like this. If the deal goes through, in contrast to having more enriched politicians, we'll be left with only three nationwide carriers, only one of them on GSM. That can't be good for prices and services.

As a very happy Sprint customer I do not like it. I like competition to keep the prices as reasonable as the free market will cause it to be. Less competition equals higher prices.

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"Ceterum autem censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam" “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”

Competition is good

And this merger isn't good. But we'll have to live with the consequences if it happens.

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Tuckahoe Mike - Nuvi 3490LMT, Nuvi 260W, iPhone X, Mazda MX-5 Nav

AT&T "will look hard" at keeping T-Mobile's no-contract plans

selfruler wrote:

I don't talk or text much. Spent a total of $125 in phone expenses in the last year, including $25.00 for a new phone. AT&T probably is going to boot customers like me. Guess I'll have to find another carrier if AT&T doesn't offer PAYG accounts.

Not likely to ever have issues for texting while driving! wink

"T-Mobile has relatively cheap service plans compared with AT&T, particularly when comparing the kind that don't come with a two-year contract. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said one of the goals of the acquisition would be to move T-Mobile customers to smart phones, which have higher monthly fees. AT&T "will look hard" at keeping T-Mobile's no-contract plans, he said."

http://www.comcast.net/articles/finance/20110320/US.AT_T.T.M...

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Garmin Nuvi 1490LMT, Nuvi 750, Nuvi 255LT

att and tmobile

monopoly in the making.

If you buy that....

Quote:

"T-Mobile has relatively cheap service plans compared with AT&T, particularly when comparing the kind that don't come with a two-year contract. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said one of the goals of the acquisition would be to move T-Mobile customers to smart phones, which have higher monthly fees. AT&T "will look hard" at keeping T-Mobile's no-contract plans, he said."

I got some oceanfront property in Arizona
From my front porch you can see the sea
I got some oceanfront property in Arizona
If you'll buy that I'll throw the Golden Gate in free.
wink

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nüvi 750 & 760

slowly, but surely, because we said nothing ...

... yet again, AT&T strengthens its monopoly.

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it's the dog's fault

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Garmin DriveSmart 5 My other toys: IMac quad-core i3, Mac Mini M1. MacOS: Ventura 13.3.1 The dog's name is Ginger.

The regulators should stop this one

When Cingular bought ATT some time ago they had to sell off the ATT network and radio spectrum to Tmobile. They couldn't own that many. It was an antitrust violation.

It hasn't changed, this will result in worse service and less competition. I want more competition. Not less.

This should easily violate the Sherman Antitrust Act and the regulators should stop this completely. It's anti-competitive. Write the FTC and congress.

Cellphone carriers business model is to keep a stranglehold on the equipment and use that to keep their customers signed up to long contracts.

No matter what happens with this merger cellphone carriers should be banned from selling equipment as long as they hold spectrum licenses.

You should be able to buy your phone at Walmart, Radio Shack, wherever, off the wall at very competitive prices.

Phones would work on all networks and the prices would decline.

Cellphone carriers would then be free to compete for customers with better prices and better service. They would have to satisfy their customers or they would switch and take their number with them.

Greed

"If so, why do all of us T-Mobile customers know we will not see any of that savings and will be told to bend over?"

Same reason the savings and profits aren't passed on to the other employees in the company and just the guys at the top, Greed.

Now that's a scary thought

Now that's a scary thought

Exactly

MAC06 wrote:

"AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said one of the goals of the acquisition would be to move T-Mobile customers to smart phones, which have higher monthly fees. AT&T "will look hard" at keeping T-Mobile's no-contract plans, he said."

Exactly! I don't have a smartphone and I don't want a smartphone. The fees, that they are salivating over, are outrageous and almost border on usury. I use an old Motorola V360 GSM phone and I am happy with it. For the "Smart" stuff, I have an iPod Touch 4 that works great with WiFi and gives me everything a iPhone has except the contract, fees and monthly charges.

So it boils down to AT&T trying to figure out a way to blackmail us into taking equipment we do not want and paying more for it. Nice...

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I support the right to keep and arm bears.

RE: any thoughts on the buyout

kch50428 wrote:

It will be certainly interesting to see how this shakes out when all the federal hurdles get jumped... and politicians "contributed to" in order to garner support...

The next year as 4G technology starts to be widely available from several providers across the country will make things interesting enough without this deal. And to witness the sea-change in the wireless industry in terms of the technology alone is awesome.

As this proceeding moves forward, the FCC will open the record for comments from all interested parties. With the number of comments being generated here, I wonder how many will take the time to file a comment on the proposed buyout where their comments will have to be read by those making the decision on whether to allow the acquisition? Filing a comment doesn't mean you need a lawyer or filling out a form, it's taking the time to draft a brief statement on the FCC website and filing it through their electronic comment filing system.

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Illiterate? Write for free help.

History repeats itself.

allbizz wrote:

I think I spelt it correctly. I hope this doesn't go through, because then AT&T and Verizon will have 80% of the wireless subscribers. What does that mean, less competition. I guess now-a-days if you can't beat them, buy them.

I remember when they first broke up the "Ma Bell" telephone system to add competition and bring down prices. Now they are allowing companies to merge to become big mammoth companies (not only telephone but banks, hospitals, etc. What are they thinking?

It never ends!

It's seems rare these days that the consumer comes out ahead when mergers of this magnitude happen. Imagine if AT&T were to take the capital reserved for this aquisition and applied it to infrastructure upgrades on their exsisting network?!?! Then I wouldn't have to use my "AT&T Mark The Spot" bad service app so often!

The prevailing corporate attitudes seems to be:

"Why earn customers when we can buy them?!?!?!" twisted

or

"Let's pump up our books and pray that someone buys us for 10X are value before we go under"!!! rolleyes

Cricket PAYG

Cricket
PAYG
Unlimited everything
Improved nationwide service (not complete but getting better)
Droid and Blackberry

$55 month

Most people I've talked to with this plan are pretty happy with it.

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OK.....so where the heck am I?

FCC Comments

Box Car wrote:

As this proceeding moves forward, the FCC will open the record for comments from all interested parties. With the number of comments being generated here, I wonder how many will take the time to file a comment on the proposed buyout where their comments will have to be read by those making the decision on whether to allow the acquisition? Filing a comment doesn't mean you need a lawyer or filling out a form, it's taking the time to draft a brief statement on the FCC website and filing it through their electronic comment filing system.

I will probably take the time to file as I have done it for Amateur Radio related matters as well. However, I also believe that despite the democratic action of being allowed to file, some filers are more equal than others. I have no doubt that inside the FCC, one pro-merger filing from an industry representative is rated equal to one million negative comments from the population at large. Five pro-merger industry comments versus 4.5 million negative citizen comments will result in a favorable "go forward" ruling.

Just saying that is how it "appears" to work, not how it is supposed to work.

One of the industry journals I read commented that one of the arguments that will probably be dragged out as an indicator of continued wireless competition will be the proposed Lightsquared service; the service that will severely disrupt GPS due to its high powered terrestrial signals next to the GPS band. My guess is the FCC will buy that argument and screw both T-Mobile customers and GPS users at the same time. In fact, this merger may very well give impetus to getting the Lightsquared project built despite the GPS concerns because of the now needed wireless competition.

My prediction: two years from now, cell phone service charges will be higher than ever and your trusty GPS will be a brick.

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I support the right to keep and arm bears.

I've been to a third world

I've been to a third world country that offers 5 or more GSM providers to choose from. If the deal goes through, there will be 1 GSM provider, at least on the US west coast. This news is very unpleasant.

A new "Too Big To Fail"

bsp131 wrote:

I remember when they first broke up the "Ma Bell" telephone system to add competition and bring down prices. Now they are allowing companies to merge to become big mammoth companies (not only telephone but banks, hospitals, etc. What are they thinking?

Indeed, this is creating another one of these "Too Big To Fail" what might have to be "rescued" by...

Look At This

Juggernaut wrote:
mdh31951 wrote:

If they are going to save money they need to spend it on more towers for better coverage.

You may get that! This is pretty cool tech!

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/21/technology/light_radio/index.htm?cnn=yes

Thanks it was a very interesting article I sure hope it woks,I wonder why don't they use satellites,I know they are already in space.

not my experience

Aardvark wrote:
Box Car wrote:

As this proceeding moves forward, the FCC will open the record for comments from all interested parties. With the number of comments being generated here, I wonder how many will take the time to file a comment on the proposed buyout where their comments will have to be read by those making the decision on whether to allow the acquisition? Filing a comment doesn't mean you need a lawyer or filling out a form, it's taking the time to draft a brief statement on the FCC website and filing it through their electronic comment filing system.

I will probably take the time to file as I have done it for Amateur Radio related matters as well. However, I also believe that despite the democratic action of being allowed to file, some filers are more equal than others. I have no doubt that inside the FCC, one pro-merger filing from an industry representative is rated equal to one million negative comments from the population at large.

The content of the filing and how well the argument is presented is the main factor. A million postcards all saying the same thing is only one comment.

If you will file, be clear, concise, and stay on topic. You are dealing with bureaucrats that happen to be lawyers and often don't have any idea of the issues outside their little box.

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Illiterate? Write for free help.

RE: Does this mean T-Mobile users will start dropping calls too?

All carriers occasionally drop calls. I will have to say that in my area of Western Virginia, AT&T has greatly improved their network. Many locations where I previously had No Service, I now get a strong 3G signal. Plus, I cannot remember the last time I had a call dropped.
In my opinion, this will end up being a plus for AT&T subscribers, but not so much for T-Mobile.

Thought

johnm405 wrote:

I think everyone with T-Mobile wiii see their rate increase and to match what AT&T has on their plans now.

I agree with this comment!!!

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Garmin Nuvi 255W

I agree it will be monopoly

I agree it will be monopoly

Hope they stop this

Democrats in general are for regulation of business.

Republicans want to deregulate things so they are usually OK with mergers like this.

So the Obama administration should oppose this on that ground. Not sure what's really gonna happen but based on standard political ideology that's what should happen.

It should be stopped by the Obama administration as being anti consumer. And even though I am a Republican I would be against any anti competitive stuff like this. I like more competition, not less.

Clark Howard's comments

Someone posted this online.
It was interesting.

http://www.clarkhoward.com/news/home/t-looking-buy-t-mobile/...

AT&T has the urge to merge with T-Mobile...and it's just about the worst potential marriage of 2 companies that I can recall in my lifetime. In fact, it's bad on so many counts that it's hard to know where to start!

There are inflection points in our country's history when we have to decide whether our nation will be about greatness or something else. This is a time when we face a challenge: Should crony capitalism win out or should the politicians in Washington stand up and do what's right for America?

If AT&T is allowed to take over T-Mobile, it will take us back to the mid 1990s. If you know your wireless history, Congress made a terrible decision in the 1980s that allowed a duopoly for cell phone service in America. Each community had 2 wireless providers and there was no innovation and no price competition. Only the wealthy had cell phones for very sparing use.

Congress eventually realized the error of its ways and the opened the market to new players. The innovation and price competition has never stopped since then. In fact, the innovation generated big exports of big dollar technology around the world to make us more globally competitive.

The problem with the AT&T merger is that it would leave us with 2 monopoly local phone companies -- Verizon being the other one -- controlling nearly three quarters of all cell service in the United States. It will create another shared monopoly. And monopolies don't want unlimited use of data. Monopolies want to regulate scarcity, with no thought to innovate or create more of what we seek.

More at the link above.

Not great

From the stories I read, basically we'll get less choice and higher prices.

T-mobile lost their way recently

I was a T-mobile customer for a long time but changed recently. They phased out the My faves plan which I thought was a bad decision and they never embraced Android OS even though they had the early market advantage. Having said that I think this merger is bad to all the GSM customers.

Sorry to Say

I' won't be surprised if AT&T is allowed to acquire T-Mobile, but it won't be good for cell phone users. Rates will rise, services will decline. The govt will probably force AT&T to divest themselves of some minor companies, stating that they're still maintaining competition in the market, but it won't be so.

It's a grand error.

Fred

Not in favor of i tunless it

Not in favor of it unless it promotes faster and cheaper service and I think that is very unlikey.

TMobile users can now share

TMobile users can now share in the AT&T rate plan 220. It's 200 dropped calls for every 20 calls completed successfully.

Hard to see how this helps the consumer

Curious if there will be changes at Verizon as a result

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