∞ AT&T acquires T-Mobile for $39 billion

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AT&T on Sunday said it has entered into a agreement to purchase T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a cash and stock deal worth an estimated $39 billion.

[ad#Google Adsense 300x250 in story]AT&T said its customer and T-Mobile customers will see improved service and voice quality because of the deal, due to additional spectrum and increased tower density. According to the companies, AT&T will gain cell sites equivalent to what would have taken on average five years to build without the transaction, and double that in some markets.

The deal will also bring AT&T’s 4G LTE technology to an additional 46.5 million Americans. This includes rural and smaller communities, making 4G available to 294 million people or 95 percent of the U.S. population, according to AT&T.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals, but is expected to close within 12 months.


  • Tut

    And now they are three…

    The world is going towards diversity and competition – the US goes the opposite way. Weird.
    This will lead to less choices, higher costs for consumers and less innovation.

  • http://www.thegraphicmac.com JimD

    While I don’t disagree with you, Tut, you can also look at it another way. You need competition to have better service (in this case, call quality), so the combined AT&T and T-Mobile will increase the amount of towers available to their customers – thereby improving call quality. Verizon got to be the way it is because they bought (If memory serves me) all of AT&T Wireless towers many years ago (when AT&T didn’t think this whole wireless thing wasn’t going anywhere fast enough). This will hopefully offer the same results.

    Now as far as cost goes, yeah, this pretty much kills any chance of a price war between the big two. Sprint is just an also-ran at this point.

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    There is no way this acquisition is good for consumers. I really wish America hadn’t become such a deregulated landscape for unfettered consolidation of this kind.

  • Anonymous

    For all the negatives to this deal, I think it’s better than Sprint and AT&T getting together. That would have been a non-competitive mess. And this will give AT&T customers better quality coverage. If what they say is true. And international travel should be more convenient.

    On the other hand, isn’t this going to weaken Sprint’s future? What are they going to do? Compete with Verizon and AT&T? Hopefully, some international carrier will see an opportunity and jump into the American market by buying Sprint. Orange? One of the massive African carriers? That might really stir things up.

    Still, I have to agree with Moe, there’s a very good chance this is simply going to be like every other media consolidation. Bad for consumers.

    • Guest

      I doubt Verizon purchased AT&T towers back in the day. (I cannot confirm though.) However, I believe Verizon did buyout a lot of small regional carriers over the years. I remember a few years ago (probably more like 5 or so) Sprint did buyout Nextel. Two different networks… It made no sense for Sprint to get involved with spectrum that was not compatible with their handsets. AT&T with T-Mobile as one company makes sense for AT&T. Their networks both run on GSM and they both have some areas where one company has coverage and the other doesn’t as well as better covering their network in overlapping their towers in areas they both have coverage. But really this is not good for a consumer looking to stretch the dollar further.

      • http://www.thegraphicmac.com JimD

        In reading up about it, they did purchase a bunch of AT&T assets, including towers. Those “regional carriers” you’re referring to were in fact owned by AT&T.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5CHGT2GWBDGFMOTS3NPVFN4YT4 Gary Cooper

    Terrific for the nation’s telco infrastructure.

  • http://www.getgek.com/ sunnylovey

    Some body say AT&T acquires T-Mobile is a money-losing deal.

  • Bkrueger

    As a former AT&T wireless customer and long-time T-mobile customer I am disappointed that this merger is happening. What will happen to the excellent T-mobile customer service plus price competition? AT&T service in non-urban areas is not any better than T-mobile’s. Maybe I like supporting the underdog but I hope that this does not get approved by the FCC. I have dealt with AT&T as provider in business settings not the company that I want to support with my hard-earned dollars. Why don’t they learn from how many T-mobile users have jailbroken and unlocked iPhones rather than going with AT&T or Verizon? Support competition.

  • Tut

    Here is an alien idea; why don’tAT&T and T-mobile agree to use each other’s networks, but remain the same as today. That way they both gain a better coverage while offering their own services.

    This method is actually working just fine in Sweden and maybe other countries. But i doubt it would work in this case. US giants do not cooperate as a rule. A pitty.