AT&T bought T-Mobile us

I haven't really read through all of this thread, but, I do have a question or two:



Would the phones now on T-Mobile, once the merge completes, be available on the AT&T network?

Only if AT&T adds the TMo frequency for 3g to their towers. It's more likely they will add their 3g to Tmo's rather than the other way around (shorter pole in the tent so to speak). Going forward they would consolidate on a 3g frequency while building out LTE.

EDIT: Mickey P just tweeted that they are in fact planning on cross pollinating 2g and 3g across the network on dual band cell sites and using TMo’s 1900 AWS spectrum for LTE.

Also this story
http://www.androidcentral.com/att-targets-t-mobiles-current-3g-spectrum-expanded-lte-capacity
 
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Only if AT&T adds the TMo frequency for 3g to their towers. It's more likely they will add their 3g to Tmo's rather than the other way around (shorter pole in the tent so to speak). Going forward they would consolidate on a 3g frequency while building out LTE.

I think they'll keep 1700mhz open to prop up their 3G network until they can roll out LTE, and so they can justify not giving all T-mobile's subscribers new phones.

They'll probably build out LTE on 700 (I think that's what they have) and then shut down 1700 and build more LTE on that.

EDIT: or not, see above.

EDIT 2: Ok maybe I'm right. I don't even know anymore.
 
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I'm curious what krazy learned on the call this morning. Anything that was not mentioned in the news?
 
I haven't read much from the blogs on this so this may all be a repeat but some key takeaways:

Sprint did in fact hold talks with DT about buying T-Mob on and off for the past few years. DT went with T for a few reasons: 1) they were willing to put up more cash (the deal is going to be $25B cash the rest stock) and they also were willing to give DT a $3B break-up clause. This means that if AT&T walks away from the deal they have to pay DT $3B in cash money. Also included in the break up fee is some spectrum (10K mhz) in certain markets.

AT&T and T-Mobile won't be dropping off towers in the near term, since they need all the footprint to deliver enhanced bandwidth. Over the medium term (3-5 years), combined company would reduce tower portfolio below where it would be if the two companies had remained independent, but definitely above the footprint that AT&T would have had in the absence of the deal.

T-mob brand will be disappearing over time.

According to a Barclay's report I read (and I quote from them so don't ask me for details): "T-Mobile handsets will need to be swapped in some cases (in order to get handsets that will work on all four of T's bands - 700/850/1700/1900), but some handsets may be able to be flashed to work with all bands - any such savings would be incremental to synergies. "

$8BN in incremental capex represents additional capex related to integration (i.e. deploying multimode antennas on T-Mobile sites)

I can post the transcript tomorrow if people are interested. But the replay should be up on AT&T's investor relations website.
 
According to a Barclay's report I read (and I quote from them so don't ask me for details): "T-Mobile handsets will need to be swapped in some cases (in order to get handsets that will work on all four of T's bands - 700/850/1700/1900), but some handsets may be able to be flashed to work with all bands - any such savings would be incremental to synergies. "

This does not surprise me in the least.

During the Analog/Digital transition, I was on VZW (it may have still been Bell Atlantic then) roaming on Bell South for months. They called me and told me I could have any new digital phone I wanted free from any Corporate Store. My unlimited minutes/roaming plan was killing them in analog roaming charges.

A Cingular analog handset I had was force migrated to digital one day when a free Erickson phone arrived in a box via the mail with a note saying; "This is your new phone, if you want another take this box to a store within 15 days. If this phone is not activated or exchanged within 15 days I would be charged $X."

I remember in Sprint's early days they were GSM in the DC area. The Europeans loved it because they could roam on their European plans. Sprint finally force migrated their subscribers to CDMA to align with the rest of their network and gave the roamers 30 day's notice via text that the network would be shut down.

So, AT&T force migrating TMo users to compatible handsets certainly has a historical precedent. Truth is that over the 2 - 3 years they are targeting the transition, only a small number of subscribers with old phones will be affected.
 
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There are three forms of Multiple Access:

TDMA -
CDMA
FDMA .

These -MAs are principles in which the sender and caller have access to the network.

You can do it by Time slots (TDMA),
by having a different frequency for each (FDMA)
or by coding each separately (CDMA).

GSM works on TDMA principles.

UMTS (also known as W-CDMA) with CDMA principles.

Governing bodies have nothing to do with it. Its just sharing the same politics body. It has nothing to do with the fundamental theory of governing multiple access.

LTE uses OFDMA which is a very different technology from the above, Its entirely a different technology from GSM, though it uses CDMA, TDMA and FDMA principles. They just have the same politics body and patent holder companies developing it.

Again, you are not correct. LTE is based on the GSM technology 'family tree', and was designed specifically in that way.
 
I doubt any T-Mobile customer will switch to AT&T, I just read an article stating my Nexus S will no longer work starting next year? What the? Well, that's great! (I just mean that T-Mobile will no longer offer service). They will update most of T-Mobile's towers to LTE or something :(

Hello Verizon! I know Sprint supposedly has a cheaper plan, but I have had terrible beef with Sprint and I don't think they have no contract plans like Verizon does :).
 
I doubt any T-Mobile customer will switch to AT&T, I just read an article stating my Nexus S will no longer work starting next year? What the? Well, that's great! (I just mean that T-Mobile will no longer offer service). They will update most of T-Mobile's towers to LTE or something :(

Hello Verizon! I know Sprint supposedly has a cheaper plan, but I have had terrible beef with Sprint and I don't think they have no contract plans like Verizon does :).

It's going to be at least a year before ANYTHING happens. And its not like they're going to shut it down the day the deal goes through. I'm guessing T-mobile has 2 full years left, and even after that, I doubt AT&T will shut down the 1700 band, so all the phones will still work (just not on th entire AT&T network).
 
As a loyal T-Mobile customer who has never had any issues with coverage, I can't say I'm really looking forward to this. I know they're saying CONTRACTED plans will be grandfathered in but I'm not looking forward to the inevitable price hikes and data caps offered by AT&T. Not to mention that being an employee with them I'll be sad to see corporate leaving my backyard.

However...Part of me feels that the government won't allow the merger to go through because it would cause such a monopoly in the market. I agree with those of you who brought up how the DOJ would love to see a non-US company out of the marketplace, but at the same time by no longer having T-Mobile as an independent company can only hurt consumers...At the same time with Obama's agenda wanting to bring wireless services to rural America, I see those members of his administration and those who have been appointed by him taking this as an opportunity to achieve this goal. I just feel like it would be at the expense of the vast majority of wireless users.

In the end, I personally don't feel that the projected benefits will outweigh the predicted costs. Magenta pride through and through :)
 
Again, you are not correct. LTE is based on the GSM technology 'family tree', and was designed specifically in that way.

Who told you that?

Sorry but there is no 'family tree'.

LTE is a clean cut from UMTS which itself is a clean cut from GSM. OFDMA is fundamentally very different in principle from the TDMA principles that GSM is based upon. GSM itself grew from the 1st gen TDMA.

Who implemented the first UMTS network? Docomo. They implemented UMTS without even implementing a GSM base station network. In fact, in Japan, GSM doesn't exist, its all straight UMTS with Docomo and Softbank. If the station network is degraded to the point you don't get 3G, there is NO EDGE, NO GPRS the connection falls back into. Oh, and there is a good reason why UMTS is also referred to as W-CDMA --- it uses Code Division for multiple access and spread spectrum and like 2G CDMA.

Another country that implements UMTS without GSM base stations is Korea. They went straight from CDMA to UMTS using the same stations. As a matter of fact their phones do switch between CDMA and UMTS and with one telecom, EV-DO. Again, no fall back to EDGE or GPRS.

For that matter, when Verizon implements LTE on the Thunderbolt, there is no fall back to UMTS and no fall back further to EDGE/GPRS.

The family trees goes like this:

TDMA - GSM - GPRS - EDGE

CDMA - EVDO Rev A - EVDO Rev B

(EVDO isn't a clean break from CDMA and still use CDMA channels for voice and text. To have EV-DO, you still must have CDMA base stations. UMTS doesn't have that kind of relationship with GSM.)

UMTS - HSPA/HSDPA - HSPA+

LTE - LTE Advanced

WiMax

TD-SCDMA - TD-LTE (combined with LTE)

Having SIMs means nothing. Docomo UMTS uses a SIM that is incompatible with your "standard" SIM. In Asia, CDMA networks also got SIMs.
 
Rushlr: Now, the saga begins!

Not so long ago, in a galaxy not so far away, the empire was steadily growing in power. The rebels, having lost their t-mobile base at Hoth..........
;)
 

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