∞ AT&T dangles LTE as T-Mobile acquisition benefit

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Associated Press (via Google):

AT&T’s LTE plans have figured in the company’s bid to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. AT&T says it originally planned to build out LTE to cover 80 percent of the U.S. population, but if regulators let it buy T-Mobile, it will upgrade cell sites in rural areas as well, to cover 97 percent of the population. AT&T has less radio spectrum available for LTE than Verizon does, so it wants to take some of the spectrum T-Mobile uses for 3G and convert it to LTE.

AT&T’s rollout of LTE is a relatively soft launch, with five cities online now and 10 more expected by the end of the year. That’s far behind competitor Verizon, which offers LTE in dozens of cities. While new devices are required to access the faster networking technology, AT&T isn’t adding on new data plans – they’re a “perk thrown in with existing plans,” according to the report.

AT&T is facing stiff resistance to its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. Seven states have joined the Department of Justice lawsuit to stop the merger in its tracks; they claim that reducing the number of cell phone networks will reduce competition.

Apple, for its part, hasn’t indicated when it will offer LTE-equipped devices.


  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Holding the public airwaves hostage in exchange for promises they’d never keep without strong oversight anyway. Yes, AT&T is everyone’s friend.

  • Anonymous

    Kind of nice of AT&T to let customers access their small 4G network (so long as they have the hardware) without paying extra (for now). I know a few Sprint early adopters that were paying for 4G (an extra $10/month) even when we live in an area that (at the time) didn’t have Sprint’s 4G coverage for 300 miles around.

    I’m one of the few that want this AT&T&T-Mobile merger to go through. I’m already paying for AT&T’s rates, ideally with this merger I’ll just pay $200 for my iPhone 4S/5 and have great T-Mobile 4G rebranded as AT&T 4G (still on my grandfathered unlimited data plan) in my area, without paying anything more. And if they even try to raise my rates I’m jumping ship to Verizon.