AT&T Officially Ends Plans To Acquire T-Mobile USA

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.'"

And there was much rejoicing !!

[Anonymous Coward]

A t-mobile subscriber.

What says they won't try another way?

[sethstorm]

It just seems odd that AT&T would let a leak stop them from acquiring T-Mobile.

As a very satisfied T-Mobile customer with flat-rate 3G, I'm not going to put it beyond AT&T to try some less-visible route to get rid of the only national carrier that doesn't try to meter data.

Re-Title This Accordingly

[crow_t_robot]

DoJ/FCC Officially End AT&T's Plans To Acquire T-Mobile USA
Because that's who really made the final decision.

Re:And there was much rejoicing !!

[Miamicanes]

From Sprint subscribers, too. T-Mobile's our lifeboat and sanctuary if Sprint becomes evil someday.

Re:T-Mobile USA is not sliding towards bankruptcy.

[SecurityFocus]

Right. T mobile is a very pervasive player in the Telecommunications landscape. SBC or AT&T as they like to be called, LOVES to buy out direct competitors. They saw Tmobile as a very large player in the space and coupled with T-mobile's 4g network and affordable prices, it was a natural fit for them. I worked for AT&T both before and after they where purchased by SBC. Which I detailed some of my experiences at http://whyattdestroysjobs.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com] ... Let's just say while I was there, ATT management as well as Sales Managers such as myself while I was employed with AT&T where constantly going up against T mobile.. Simply because they T-mobile offered affordable plans, greater flexibility in devices, and more affordable and faster service(s) and CUSTOMER SERVICE that was hands down better than AT&T/SBC. Only what ATT did not bargain on- which frankly they should of KNOWN is the current economy and state of affairs in DC - that proposing a Merger in an election year when unemployment is at record highs and their is further economic uncertainty around the world, that a deal like this that would stifle innovation, lead to higher consumer prices, et al could not of been proposed at a worse time!

Re:It still hurt T-Mobile bad

[Esteanil]

I know a lot of people who's contracts were up and jumped ship on the news that AT&T was going to buy them. I don't know the percentage but every T-Mobile subscriber I know all moved to other carriers when they heard the initial announcement

That is why AT&T is going to pay them around 3 Billion in compensation.

So, T-Mobile is undersubscribed, (Wee, bandwidth!) and gets 3 billion to build up their network with... Invest 85/15% in infrastructure / the advertising campaign they're gonna need, and they might well become a significant player on the US market again, wouldn't you say?

And full speed LTE on a carrier with a solid network is a beautiful thing.

Re:Best news for a while

[realityimpaired]

AT&T would shit themselves if some of the plans you can get in Canada were made available in the US, let alone a European or a Japanese plan.

To put things in perspective for our American friends, from a carrier like Mobilicity (one of the newer startups, only available in big cities at the moment), you can get unlimited Canada/US talk, global texting, call display, voicemail, 3-way calling, and unlimited data (including tethering) for $55/mo. If you pre-pay the year in advance it comes to about $35/mo (and that's not a special offer... the holiday special offer that's on right now is $27.50/mo for the first 6 months, or 12 months if you put it on automatic preauthorized payments). You can bring your own phone if you like, or you can buy an Android phone from them for as little as $169, and that's without a term contract. Their coverage is good as long as you don't leave the big city, and if you do leave the city, you'll roam on one of the national networks.

And if you'd rather have a plan on the national network, I am paying $40/mo for my smartphone plan... it's not unlimited data (it's a flex plan, $5/mo is the minimum data level, which I'm usually on, but it goes up to $30/mo for 3GB, tethering included even at the $5/mo level), and it's only 150 anytime minutes, but I have unlimited evenings/weekends @ 5pm-8am (which is basically unlimited talk when you're at work M-F 9-5), and unlimited long distance, as well as global texting, call display, voicemail, 3-way calling, etc. That's with Koodo, which is a fight brand wholly owned by Telus, which is one of the big 3 carriers.

And at this point, the Americans are probably saying "holy shit, you can get a plan like those in Canada?". And the Europeans and Japanese are saying "holy shit, people actually pay that much?"

Re:And there was much rejoicing !!

[Zibodiz]

I'm a T-Mo customer living in Wyoming. I travel a lot for my job (I cover about 2.5 million square miles across 4 states, mostly in Wyoming), and my Android phone is roaming 95% of the time. The great thing is, being an Android phone, it tells me what network I'm roaming on, and lets me choose if I want to. The data flat does not work on most of the carriers, but the voice coverage is awesome. I'm never on AT&T (their coverage is always sub-par), but I always have 4 bars everywhere I go, including all the places my old Verizon phone had no coverage at all. I get to roam onto all the local carriers, and always have better coverage that anyone else. I cannot imagine a nicer setup (other than, say, getting to use data everywhere). My family that uses AT&T here in Wy hate it; poor coverage, rude customer service, and high prices.
Oh, and it costs a third what my Verizon dumbphone did, without a data plan.