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back to article AT&T poised to kick T-Mobile USA out of bed

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have given the first signal that they might give up on the marriage proposal for T-Mobile USA after heavy opposition from the US government. The companies have withdrawn their application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and will focus on handling the flak they face over the merger from …

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  1. oldtaku Silver badge

    Not giving up (though they might)

    This looks more like divide and conquer. Instead of trying to fight the DoJ and FCC on two fronts, they're concentrating on the DoJ for now, so they can bring the full brunt of lobbying and bribes to bear on a single front.

    Of course this is still a bad position, and they could at any time decide it's not worth the effort.

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  2. David Kelly 2

    I like T-Mobile just the way they are.

    T-Mobile's marketing strategies don't seem to have let up the past year which suggests they were wisely not betting their farm on being acquired by AT&T.

    I have a perfectly adequate inexpensive voice only plan with T-Mobile. AT&T offered nothing like it. Coverage is not as good as with Verizon but cost is much less. And there are places my T-Mobile coverage is superior to Verizon.

    As I've said before, I'd much rather my subscription support the cute girl in hot pink dress rather than the ugly blue AT&T death star.

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  3. Old Handle
    Go

    I'm really kind of amazed that my Government is *actually* doing something to stop a corporate monopoly. I mean I know that's what they're supposed to be doing and all... But I can't even remember the last time they seriously did it.

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    1. Gary Bickford
      Reply Icon

      Monopoly is not illegal.

      WRT Old Handle's note on monopoly, the US Government is not 'supposed' to stop monopolies, but only to prevent them from abusing their monopoly power. At present (whether one agrees with the principle or not) it is not illegal for a company to have 99.999% of a market, if they achieve and maintain it using fair business practices. Of course, YMMV - and IMHO, the present monopoly law is insufficient and does not reflect more modern understanding of the fluid dynamics of markets and dominance.

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  4. James Woods

    can't see the forest for the trees

    First off it's a little too late for big brother to come in and save us from a monopoly. The federal government is the worst monopoly one can ever ask for.

    AT&T never wanted this merger to go through to begin with. For whatever reason it was pushed as far as it has been but t-mobile is a loser in the united states and there is no incentive for at&t to merge with it.

    After having personally experienced their service [tmobile] (which has diminished in my area after these merge talks failed) and the pleasure of customer service informing me that even if the service no longer works that I still owe them i'll be glad to see t-mobile usa go up in flames.

    I held up hope during these merger talks that if t-mobile had merged that I might get better cell coverage but now it's nothing in my area like it was when I first got it and the only excuse tmobile has is a one day outage they had. Customer service to this day maintains a 1 day outage has resulted in weeks of no coverage.

    I've deal with Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile, and I can honestly say that tmobile has been my worst experience.

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    1. Wallyb132
      Reply Icon
      Mushroom

      I have to say i disagree with you...

      I have to say i disagree with you on most of your points except one, the first one, the federal government is insanely out of control.

      However as for AT&T never wanting this merger to go through, if that were the case they would have never agreed to nearly $6bn in breakup fees. yes $6bn, despite this article saying $4bn, the total value of the breakup clause is $6bn +/-, $3bn in cash, $2bn worth of wireless spectrum and a roaming agreement between the 2 companies thats said to benefit t-mobile by $1bn +/-.

      I dont know what area you're in, but in the greater phoenix area, T-Mobile's coverage is quite good! I rarely drop calls on my end, ironically, calls get dropped all the time when speaking with my father, on both his personal phone and his business phone. His personal phone is on AT&T and his business phone is Sprint, go figure... Several very good friends also have AT&T and i giggle at them as i watch them drop call after call all day long. They both try to tell me its the other people carriers that's the problem, they just dont get it...

      As far as customer service goes, yeah they're kind of brain dead, and kind of stupid, but as long as you dont give up, you will eventually find someone in the company that understands what the hell it is you're talking about and can fix the problem. After having dealt with Sprint and AT&T's customer service (as a customer) I have to say that T-Mobile is by far the lesser of 3 evils. Sprint was the worst but AT&T wasnt too far behind them. I've only dealt with Verizon's customer service as a 3rd party helping others, but i do have to say that my few and limited experience with them has been good.

      As a happy and proud T-Mobile customer, every news story i read that talks about this merger failing or brings news of it coming one step closer to failure, brings a smile to my face...

      ,,!,, AT&T... And get your checkbook cause this fuck up comes with a fat price tag...

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  5. Gary Bickford

    T-Mobile win

    (First I'll note that for customer service, T-Mobile regularly wins kudos as the best in the US, but coverage - not so much.)

    An article in the Friday Wall Street Journal on this topic mentions not only $4 billion set aside by AT&T to be paid to T-Mobile - $3 billion cash plus $1 billion in spectrum (both good for T-Mobile), but one other very important item not in the AT&T announcement - AT&T agreed to give T-Mobile roaming access to their wireless network. This is perhaps the most important 'win' for T-Mobile - it could change the coverage dynamic, and make them a viable player. Imagine T-Mobile with the same coverage as AT&T, and T-Mobile's superior customer service. So I think that overall T-Mobile wins for playing footsie with AT&T, and possibly going home with everything they need to survive and succeed. There are many other factors, of course, but using my own example, I would never go back to T-Mobile if it becomes a part of AT&T, but if they can provide the necessary coverage and stay independent, I'd go back in a 'New York minute'.

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  6. Wallyb132
    Happy

    T-Mobile

    T-mobile is a good carrier, It would really suck to see them be sucked in to the dark side. If it does happen, AT&T will be getting approx 23m -1 customer. I've already been down that road and wont do it again...

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