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thewayneThe FCC announced that they were opposed to it, the Justice Dept filed suit against it, now AT&T has temporarily withdrawn (whatever that means) their proposal to merge with T-Mobile. And will apparently have to take a multi-billion write-down to pay off T-Mobile and Deutche Telecomm for failure to perform.
The merger is history for now, but it's likely to come back. AT&T is spouting that it will create jobs and investment opportunities and I don't see how. If the merger goes through, you'll see customer support staff at T-Mobile downsized and AT&T will go on like business as usual. AT&T claims the merger will make it easier to expand, but the reality is that, while both carriers are GSM-based, they use different frequency spectrums and are not cross-compatible. The two networks would either remain distinct, or AT&T would have to re-tool the T-Mobile towers with new equipment to make them compatible, making the orphaned users have to buy new gear.
The most blatant, bald-faced lie is the study that it would cost less for AT&T to build-out their infrastructure for better coverage than it would to buy T-Mobile. This merger was for one reason only -- eliminate a competitor.
The sad thing is that T-Mobile is in financial trouble as they've lost their European partner, so we shall see what happens with them.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/11/att-withdraws-tmobile-merger/all/1
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/11/24/2348203/att-stops-t-mobile-merger-bid-with-the-fcc
The merger is history for now, but it's likely to come back. AT&T is spouting that it will create jobs and investment opportunities and I don't see how. If the merger goes through, you'll see customer support staff at T-Mobile downsized and AT&T will go on like business as usual. AT&T claims the merger will make it easier to expand, but the reality is that, while both carriers are GSM-based, they use different frequency spectrums and are not cross-compatible. The two networks would either remain distinct, or AT&T would have to re-tool the T-Mobile towers with new equipment to make them compatible, making the orphaned users have to buy new gear.
The most blatant, bald-faced lie is the study that it would cost less for AT&T to build-out their infrastructure for better coverage than it would to buy T-Mobile. This merger was for one reason only -- eliminate a competitor.
The sad thing is that T-Mobile is in financial trouble as they've lost their European partner, so we shall see what happens with them.
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/11/att-withdraws-tmobile-merger/all/1
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/11/24/2348203/att-stops-t-mobile-merger-bid-with-the-fcc
