AT&T Officially Ends Plans To Acquire T-Mobile USA 176
An anonymous reader writes "AT&T has officially announced that it no longer plans to purchase T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom. In a press release, the company said, 'The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.'"
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
HA! (Score:5, Insightful)
Bite me, AT&T. Auto repair is competitive.
* Cell phones in the US have a small pool of providers, especially the nation-wide crowd.
* They primarily operate with 2 year contracts, and it's hard to get a phone without one.
* There's a financial disincentive for buying a phone without a contract.
* Text message rates (for which there is very little data usage, being measured in bytes) have been increasing.
* Data plans have been increasing in price and providing tighter bandwidth restrictions at the same time.
I loathe AT&T, and I'm stuck with them. Competitive? I'd get out in a heartbeat if I felt I had somewhere to go. T-Mobile has been the closest saving grace to AT&T, so I really don't want to see that absorbed.
Thanks to the Fed did -- they did one right there.
Good news (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:And there was much rejoicing !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, there was some rejoicing. Deutsche Telekom still wants out of the US market, so we can sort of expect to be treated like second-class citizens for a while until the inevitable occurs and either T-Mobile sinks entirely or someone ELSE buys them out.
Re:And there was much rejoicing !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just remember why Deutsche Telekom wanted to get rid of T-Mobile: it's a bad business for them, they want out. They tried to sell before (to Orange). T-Mobile will still get bought, or will go under. Why did Sprint oppose the deal? They don't care who owns their competitors: they knew T-Mobile was in a death march, and knew they'd get customers when they flatlined. The AT&T deal kept them from getting that plunder. (To say nothing of the assets that will come available when T-Mobile declares bankruptcy)
Of course, T-Mobile gets a couple of billion dollars from AT&T due to the failed merger, which should hold off failure for a couple of years. Nonetheless, if you're a T-Mobile customer, you need to keep your eyes open and determine who your next carrier will be.
Think of the poor customers. (Score:4, Insightful)
The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.
And I bet the grapes were sour too.
Re:And there was much rejoicing !! (Score:5, Insightful)
T-Mobile is doing fine, it's just that DK wants to go in a different direction. They're not going to crash and burn a valuable asset just to exit the U.S. wireless market though. They'll try to sell it off somewhere instead (being careful to maintain it's value in the mean while), or perhaps spin it out and sell it one share at a time.
Re:And there was much rejoicing !! (Score:5, Insightful)
If the kind of service that I've gotten with TMobile over the last 10 years is "second-class", I'll have to say I like it. What would that make ATT customers? Fifth-class citizens?
Remember that TMobile is a PROFITABLE company. They are actively making money. If DT would just cut them lose and give them the freedom to succeed or fail, I am willing to bet that they would do pretty well.
Re:Good news (Score:5, Insightful)
Too bad the current AT&T isn't the AT&T from the 1970's. It is SBC, which was one of the baby-bell spinoffs from when AT&T was broken up. [...] So, the current AT&T is actually one of the spin offs that AT&T that you hated was broken up into....
So you're saying that the current AT&T actually is the old AT&T, since it's made up of one of the splinters of the old AT&T which has bought most of the other pieces of the old AT&T? Thanks for clearing that up for us.
Re:And there was much rejoicing !! (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is that delusional? He paid T-Mobile for service. He got service. Why does he care who owns the towers?