[Garz]

RIP Tmo...

[K Bear]

Good by unlimited BB plan! I am looking to confirm if this affects Puerto Rico customers also...

T-Mobile a Puerto Rico is a subsidiary of T-Mobile USA. So the island will get screwed by AT&T again.

[Guatiao]

Thanks, I ask because it has happened before when we were SunCom customers...

TMO Q&As: Latest News | T-Mobile | Q&A: More Information About AT&T Acquisition of T-Mobile USA

[_StephenBB81]

This is what I don't want to happen. I'm on the unlimited loyalty plan and it's very cheap in comparison to what other carriers off for the same service

Jeez, I'm pretty upset.

Trust me there were a lot of people very upset in the Thunder bay region, one of my customers had 11 phones paying $250/month for their plan with rogers, with the TbayTel take over of their plan, they were moved to $1400/Month, with ZERO options, as no one has coverage in the area, I actually moved to Rogers because of the TbayTel merger as I get to use their towers for GSM service, when other providers don't

True but what does it mean for the TONS of people who are on the even more plus plan where we can leave at anytime but have to pay full price for phones. Does this mean i should hurry up in the coming months and go on the reg even more plan with the 2 year contract before the thing goes thru.

ONCE it becomes fully announced as to what is happening, then you should look at your plan

Rogers customers who had hardware upgrades available would lose their hardware upgrades moving to TbayTel, so they had to use them or lose them.
Also there was no option of getting out of your contract scott free when the merger happened, you had to change your number to a different areacode with Rogers to remain with rogers, your number was not your property any longer.

you most certainly need to talk to T-Mobile closer to the time to see what they can offer you, if you CAN sign a contract and if it will remain valid once the merger happens, so much change be defined in the purchase agreement, and personal contracts have so many loop holes in them for the Carrier to charge you more for.

[drethos]

Don't bet on it. Most T-Mo customers need either UMA or to roam on AT&T in rural areas as it is. Verizon is the only carrier that has a strong coverage base for rural and mountain areas in the Northeast.

Uhhhh with 0 coverage in Steuben county NY? My sister and my mom used to have Verizon and the only part of Steuben county they actually got service was Watkins glen witch technically is only 1/10th a part of Steuben county. That whole area is as rural and mountainous as any. Also with Watkins glen international race track down the road that sponsored the sprint cup we got no sprint coverage.... at all. I get AT&T coverage all through out there were they hardly got any coverage.

[TheScionicMan]

This guy makes some good points:

AT&T Buys T-Mobile: Great For Them, Bad For You | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

[K Bear]

Uhhhh with 0 coverage in Steuben county NY? My sister and my mom used to have Verizon and the only part of Steuben county they actually got service was Watkins glen witch technically is only 1/10th a part of Steuben county. That whole area is as rural and mountainous as any. Also with Watkins glen international race track down the road that sponsored the sprint cup we got no sprint coverage.... at all. I get AT&T coverage all through out there were they hardly got any coverage.

There is only one carrier that has coverage from the Poconos all the way up to Maine, which is Verizon. I'm not saying AT&T doesn't have some areas covered that Verizon doesn't, but for the larger populated and dense rural areas Verizon has a see of red.

[FMB8900]

Ah HELLZ no! They aren't taking my UMA away..... Will TMO still function as TMO?

Oh God! i hope not! I love the UMA feature on my BB

[FMB8900]

my reaction to the news:

[[email protected]]

so now customers will have to pay more to be the "largest" network

Actually, if you ask me, I believe that data prices will probably drop to encourage customers to leave the remaining two carriers. Also, the best part, all new phones will probably be pentaband.

THAT would rock.

I believe we'll see unlimited data return.

[Innerchild]

"NOOOOOO".... exactly my reaction when VZW bought out Alltel. Alltel had great coverage in my mostly rural/small city area. When the changeover happened, several of my family members and friends lost areas of coverage because apparently all of the Alltel towers were not used by VZW. One friend can no longer even get/make calls from her home. Service has never returned to the pre-takeover levels.

Seems like when stockholders make out on these deals, customers lose out. There needs to be more competition... not less!

[K Bear]

Well, at least we won't be hearing T-Mobile customers crying that they don't have the Torch since now they can have it with their AT&T service. Goodbye good rates and plans, hello lousy plans, device choices, and competition.

[phonegeek#AC]

T-Mobile's network is being built to max out HSPA+. They've been in transition to bump up the speeds from 14.1 to the eventual theoretic 128 before transitioning to LTE. I'm not sure if this will speed up or slow down this evolution. AT&T had maxed out their network some time ago and are behind speed wise to T-Mobile's HSPA+ network. There's more benefit for AT&T's customers than T&-Mobile's. Just more of a reason to help my dad get out of his contract with T-Mobile and sign up with Sprint.

Actually this will not play much of a role. It has very little to do with SW upgrades and more about cell site connectivity. TMO made the leap to ethernet for cell site back haul about 12 month ahead of AT&T. AT&T has done all the SW upgrades but we had a much longer path to upgrade the back haul because the size of the network. That effort has been underway and by the time of merger close speeds will be about the same just on a much larger scale.

Yup, sure does. Should be a good thing. When they acquired Cingular, they kept all of Cingular's good features (rollover minutes ... nobody else had them at the time!). I was with Cingular at the time and wasn't happy with that news, as I'd had a less than satisfactory experience with AT&T a few years before that. But I really have had nothing to complain about since then, AT&T has been great for me.

Why does everybody think prices are automatically going to go up? As long as Verizon is around, AT&T will still need to be mindful of their rates to stay competitive. Just being the biggest network won't mean squat to customers if their prices are too out of whack with the other carriers.

Wow is right. Huge move.

A couple of things, first Cingular was owned by SBC and it was Cingular that bought what was AT&T Wireless and changed the name to Cingular. Then a couple years later SBC bought AT&T (the fiber and long distance company) that was separate from the wireless company. They were two completely different entities that had no ownership ties other than AT&T wireless paid a licensing fee to AT&T to use the name. After the SBC/AT&T LD merger the combined company was called AT&T and Cingular was then integrated with the "one AT&T" initiative...

I agree that it doesn't necessarily mean prices will increase, there is an intense amount of competition and the speeds will only get better.

Seeing as how every single market between the carriers is an overlap, I don't see where this is a benefit to either carrier or their respective customers. There will have to be a divestiture of most of the overlaps, operated by a separate entity (T-Mobile Leftover Mobile?).

I have one T-Mobile device (Bold 9700) I use for certain projects, solely for taking advantage of UMA. Assuming I still have it in a year, and assuming this merger passes, I'm pretty sure I won't be fond of the outcome.

Not necessarily, the rules for spectrum ownership have been blurred in recent years because of the VZN/Altel merger. Will there be some divestiture, sure. However it will help both companies in a lot of places because areas where we're both on the same towers will allow us to remove one lease, increase coverage because we'll be able to add 850mhz to some T-mobile customers that were spectrum limited before.

Now on the subject of UMA... I believe that we'll take this opportunity to abandon what I will say is a flawed and failed femto cell set up and focus on expanding UMA to the rest of AT&Ts network... I rarely hear anyone that has used TMOs UMA setup that doesn't like it and I think it is a greater asset.

Another item that can't be overlooked is that this will interject a lot of wireless people into AT&Ts employee base. This is good for innovation and for customers. AT&T of late has been stuck in a mindset of combining wireless and wireline operations much to the detriment of customers because the two business' are very different and the leadership has become too bureaucratic and innovation is stifled on many levels. TMO has leadership that will be integrated into the AT&T structure and that will be helpful...

That may not make a whole lot of sense to some folks but believe me when I say it will be a benefit for customers...

Another thing to note is that TMO was going to have to merge at some point. Their structure was not one that would allow them to grow and profit long term. The big question was going to be with who. They didn't have capital to buy anybody else, Sprint doesn't have the capital to make that kind of buy, but there was no path to survivability long term either staring up at AT&T and Verizon...

In the end it will likely take 12 to 15 months to get it done and then integration will likely be another 9 months beyond that so it'll be a couple years in the making at least....


PG

[K Bear]

Actually this will not play much of a role. It has very little to do with SW upgrades and more about cell site connectivity. TMO made the leap to ethernet for cell site back haul about 12 month ahead of AT&T. AT&T has done all the SW upgrades but we had a much longer path to upgrade the back haul because the size of the network. That effort has been underway and by the time of merger close speeds will be about the same just on a much larger scale.


A couple of things, first Cingular was owned by SBC and it was Cingular that bought what was AT&T Wireless and changed the name to Cingular. Then a couple years later SBC bought AT&T (the fiber and long distance company) that was separate from the wireless company. They were two completely different entities that had no ownership ties other than AT&T wireless paid a licensing fee to AT&T to use the name. After the SBC/AT&T LD merger the combined company was called AT&T and Cingular was then integrated with the "one AT&T" initiative...

I agree that it doesn't necessarily mean prices will increase, there is an intense amount of competition and the speeds will only get better.


Not necessarily, the rules for spectrum ownership have been blurred in recent years because of the VZN/Altel merger. Will there be some divestiture, sure. However it will help both companies in a lot of places because areas where we're both on the same towers will allow us to remove one lease, increase coverage because we'll be able to add 850mhz to some T-mobile customers that were spectrum limited before.

Now on the subject of UMA... I believe that we'll take this opportunity to abandon what I will say is a flawed and failed femto cell set up and focus on expanding UMA to the rest of AT&Ts network... I rarely hear anyone that has used TMOs UMA setup that doesn't like it and I think it is a greater asset.

Another item that can't be overlooked is that this will interject a lot of wireless people into AT&Ts employee base. This is good for innovation and for customers. AT&T of late has been stuck in a mindset of combining wireless and wireline operations much to the detriment of customers because the two business' are very different and the leadership has become too bureaucratic and innovation is stifled on many levels. TMO has leadership that will be integrated into the AT&T structure and that will be helpful...

That may not make a whole lot of sense to some folks but believe me when I say it will be a benefit for customers...

In the end it will likely take 12 to 15 months to get it done and then integration will likely be another 9 months beyond that so it'll be a couple years in the making at least....


PG

I know in the last year, T-Mobile reorganized their call centers. Each call center has a single focus. One covers tier 1 tech, another customer service, one for tier 2 tech, and one for tier 3 (smartphones) and so on. With this stricture, it should help keep T-Mobile tech jobs in place. Retail will take a hit here for sure.

[shamoo711]

Deutche Telekom have been offloading all their less profitable networks around the world, if its anything like the T-Mobile - Orange merger in the UK, prepare for a **** up of huge proportions when they start putting their roaming on and actually start to merge sites.

Good luck ! Lol

As far as I know, T-Mobile and Orange did not fully merge - they are still their own companies, however they are sharing towers, which in the EU is easy considering all the networks share the same frequencies.

[K Bear]

As far as I know, T-Mobile and Orange did not fully merge - they are still their own companies, however they are sharing towers, which in the EU is easy considering all the networks share the same frequencies.

I can imagine we can expect outages on both T-Mo & AT&T when the merger begins, let alone when LTE is switched on. T-Mo made a smart move with their fiber deployment, but had some bad hiccups along the way. Bridging HSPA+ untill LTE is ready is the smarter move than making the huge leap from HSPA+ 42 to LTE. With all the iPhones coming back onto AT&T's network ast the same time, this can't be good.

[phonegeek#AC]

I know in the last year, T-Mobile reorganized their call centers. Each call center has a single focus. One covers tier 1 tech, another customer service, one for tier 2 tech, and one for tier 3 (smartphones) and so on. With this stricture, it should help keep T-Mobile tech jobs in place. Retail will take a hit here for sure.

Agreed. Retail will have overlap and take a hit. I do think we could learn a lot from TMOs tech support structure as well....


PG

[blockmaster]

i dont think prices will go up for sprint & verizon.those two will proably start dropping their prices &start a price war with at&t.a cdma vs. gsm war has been in the making for years.think beta vs. vhs,hd-dvd vs. bluray-" they're can only be one highlander"-lol.

[K Bear]

i dont think prices will go up for sprint & verizon.those two will proably start dropping their prices &start a price war with at&t.a cdma vs. gsm war has been in the making for years.think beta vs. vhs,hd-dvd vs. bluray-" they're can only be one highlander"-lol.

That will go right out the window with LTE, which is a GSM technology.

[Hamp]

Totally in the same boat and upset as well

Aww, crap!

[liestarter]

Chances are it means that once your contact is over, they will move you to a new pricing package

Rogers in Canada Sold all 807 Areacode numbers to TbayTel which is slowly moving all Rogers customers from their retention plans to new MUCH more expensive plans, ( 3 - 4 times the cost) and the only thing the consumers can do it to switch their numbers to other Area codes, and stay with rogers, they have NO other options.

as for Governments blocking this purchase, because Verizon and Sprint still exist I can't see how the government can block this sale for a monopoly, as they are not actually a monopoly, they are securing control over 1 technology, which is not the only technology, AT&T surely has the lawyers that can fight why this isn't a monopolistic move.

though it will certainly change the GSM landscape limiting what phones get developed and released

You may be right.

For me this will a year of weeping.

[chefmorry]

I have been eligible for a phone upgrade since November, but have been holding off waiting for an ideal device to come out (even if it means taking the jump to android).

Does anyone see any reason to either upgrade immediately, or wait? If I upgrade immediately, I'll most likely be able to upgrade shortly after the merger takes place (if it is in the 12 month range). Not quite sure what to do!

[big_time2]

I have been eligible for a phone upgrade since November, but have been holding off waiting for an ideal device to come out (even if it means taking the jump to android).

Does anyone see any reason to either upgrade immediately, or wait? If I upgrade immediately, I'll most likely be able to upgrade shortly after the merger takes place (if it is in the 12 month range). Not quite sure what to do!

Just give it some time before you make any decisions. Wait until we get more news. You don't have to wait 12 months, but waiting another month or so may be a good idea. If I were you I'd wait.

[sleepngbear]

This guy makes some good points:

AT&T Buys T-Mobile: Great For Them, Bad For You | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

All negative from the customer's perspective, and that is not the whole story. There are economies of scale that one larger entity can realize but two smaller working in parallel cannot. It isn't all going to end up in AT&T coffers. For one thing, AT&T buys into a ready-made 4G network rather than investing in building out one of their own. AT&T customers should be ecstatic at knowing 4G will be widely available in a much shorter timeframe. Well AT&T customers who don't have BlackBerry's for the time being. How many 4G GSM networks are needed to traverse the continent, anyway?

I see this as generally a positive thing, although I do feel for current T-Mo customers who have low-rate plans that surely won't be around for much longer if this actually goes through. On the positive side, I have to disagree with Mr. Segan's gloomy predictions of crappy customer service based on my own past experience living through the AT&T/Cingular as a Cingular customer. I have zero complaints with AT&T since I was assimilated. But again, Verizon is currently AT&T's biggest competitor, and they're still going to be AT&T's biggest competitor.

If this acquisition does get approved and we're sitting here next year b!tching about astronomical wireless rate increases, I take my crow lightly sauted in butter with a healthy splash of garlic. Not that it's going to change anything.

[gregerator]

From the Q&A: "We do not offer the iPhone. We offer cutting edge devices like the Samsung Galaxy S 4G" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!