T-Mobile Merging With MetroPCS 86
Daetrin writes "Last year T-Mobile tried to merge with AT&T but the deal was blocked by the FCC. Now T-Mobile and MetroPCS have agreed to merge in a $1.5 billion deal. There doesn't seem to be much concern that the FCC will disagree with this deal, perhaps because the two companies combined will have a user base of 42.5 million, which will still be smaller than the #3 player Sprint's 56.4 million. Because the two companies have similar spectrum holdings T-Mobile claims the merger will allow them to offer better coverage. They also say they will continue to offer a range of both on and off-contract plans."
Combined spectrum is a good thing... (Score:2, Informative)
I'm sorry to those folk on MetroPCS that have a "cool deal" that's just right for them, that may be swallowed up into "like but not quite matching" T-Mobile billing plans. I know this can be annoying.
That said, AT&T's problem (and reason for wanting to buy T-Mobile) was bandwidth starvation. The GSM carrirers are obligated to keep some spectrum on 2G, have a large base of phones on 3G, and desperately need LTE to meet their future bandwidth needs. So any spectrum they can buy/merge with while meeting their current obligations, can all be 4G. It's like an increase in discretionary spending, even a 25% increase in net income significantly improves your quality of life. In some places they'll have 50% more bandwidth than AT&T and 50% fewer customers. Even if you have to pay $5 a month more for your newly-mergered data plan, I think when you look over at another booth in the restaurant and see the occupant watching a pixelated 480x320 Netflix episode on his fabulous Retina Display... and your Nexus 7 wifi-linked to your phone is wall to wall sharp pixels, it will feel like win.
Re:what AT&T needed (Score:4, Informative)
You're seriously suggesting that AT&T [opensecrets.org], with their $4.5 million in contributions (20th largest) this election cycle and $31 million in lobbying (5th largest) in the last 2 years alone, doesn't know how to lobby effectively?
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:As a T-Mobile customer, I'm opposed to this mer (Score:4, Informative)
Same experience here. I've had T-Mobile for over 12 years (from when they were Voicestream). I'm currently on a Galaxy Nexus unlocked and purchased straight from Google on a $50/month unlimited voice/data/text plan.