T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

Summary: Wow, AT&T is going to buy T-Mobile USA and this is NOT an April Fool's joke. The two main U.S. GSM carriers will now combine to take on Verizon and T-Mobile customers will finally get an iPhone.

Just a couple of weeks ago there were rumors that Sprint was going to aquire T-Mobile USA and I commented how difficult that would be with completely different cellular technologies. That might have just been a smoke screen as we just learned that AT&T is going to aquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom. This actually makes sense given that both are GSM carriers and all I have to say now is that Sprint has some major work to do to compete with Verizon and this new AT&T/T-Mobile company.

It is reported that AT&T is buying T-Mobile USA for $39 billion and the deal has been approved by both company boards. T-Mobile has a unique 1700 MHz AWS band for 3G, but maybe they will give that up and go with AT&T's frequencies. The thing is, T-Mobile has a much faster HSPA+ network at the moment so we will have to keep an eye on what shakes out from a technical basis. I think LTE may become a focus for the AT&T/T-Mobile company now as they compete with Verizon for the top spot in the U.S.

The Nokia N8 that I have is a penta-band 3G phone that supports both the AT&T and T-Mobile network so why can't HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and others do the same thing moving forward to have GSM world phones?

It looks like T-Mobile customers will finally be able to get an iPhone, huh?

Topics: Legal, Enterprise Software, Hardware, iPhone, Mobility, Smartphones, AT&T

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  • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

    If T-Mobile customers get AT&T service, they will lose. I'm one of them and I'm not looking forward to it.
    Panskeptic
  • news flash: not everyone wants an iPhone.

    customer service, pricing, and smart phone offerings are all reasons why people have chosen T-Mobile over AT&T
    rorrr
    • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

      @rorrr
      <i>news flash: not everyone wants an iPhone.</i>
      That is a good thing, because choice is always a good thing. There is no phone that suits everybody?s needs.
      Rick_K
      • While true, that isn't the whole story

        @Rick_K
        [i]There is no phone that suits everybodys needs.[/i]

        While this is true, it is also true that some people have really stupid needs. For example, they claim they "need" replaceable batteries and expandable storage and Flash support but the fact that Apple has sold over 100,000,000 iOS devices that have none of these features proves that those features are dumb.

        Remember Rick, choice isn't a good thing, it simply confuses people. That is why Apple's walled garden is best. People don't have to deal with malware, Flash slowdowns, or carrying 5 extra batteries and memory cards in their pockets. Considering Apple is the only company making a profit in the portable computing market, it is obvious that the only meaningful choice (meaningful being the key word) is "Which iOS devices are right for me?" and "Do I want to upgrade as soon as the next version comes out or do I want to wait a month before lines have subsided before upgrading?"
        edtimes
      • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

        edtimes.... That's the corniest and most flawed analysis I have ever read. If you are going to go by sales of iOS devices, you should compare that 100 million with the 5 billion in sales of non-iOS devices.

        You are apparently unaware that while in 2010 Apple sold about 47 million iPhones, there were sales of about 1.3 BILLION "non-iPhones."

        "100 million iOS sales = other features are dumb." What a laugh. Your post disregards that Nokia is the world's largest handset maker, Samsung is number two, RIM #3.
        SanFranciscoCA
      • Name 1 phone that sells better than iPhone

        @SanFranciscoCA
        You can't. None of them do. It doesn't count if you have to add up all the sales of hundreds of other models just to be bigger than 1 model of iPhone. That isn't fair!!

        Besides, none of those other companies you mentioned made anything close to the amount of profit that Apple has made from smartphone sales. All the others have to rely on "buy one get one free" offers or they have to sell at a loss just to convince people that, while their phone isn't anywhere near as good as iPhone, hey, at least it was cheaper! None of these are sustainable long term strategies. I predict that within about 5 years, Apple will be the only company making smartphones. All the others will have completed the race to the bottom and will be selling dumb phones with 5 cent profit margins to poor people who can't afford anything better.
        edtimes
      • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

        @edtimes You all do realize how dumb you sound asking which single phone outsells the iPhone right? Just about any other platform gibes you hardware choice. With iOS you have not choice so sales are simply concentrated. You look at platform which makes more senseband iOS is easily being outsold by Android. And every market share analysis for over a year now had shown that the iPhone isn't gaining any market share. There's a set number of people that want these super simple and limited phones and they already have them now.
        storm14k
      • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

        Here's a perfect example of Poe's Law in action: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."

        I can't tell for sure if edtimes is being sarcastic or if he's really delusional. With the first post I thought he was being silly, but as the posts went on I'm not sure. I'd say 80% chance it's parody though.
        jgm@...
    • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

      @rorrr <br>of course there will be a lot of choice with this. When Cingular acquired AT&T, I personally had a chance to get WinMo phone and then when AT&T acquired Cingular that time also I had good choice of plans. Of course AT&T had become greedy after that and they started charging for everything. I never had issues to tether my WinMo to more than 2 devices at a time without getting calls and emails from AT&T. But now I am not doing tethering with the phone, because I have my own prepaid MiFi, which I use whenever I travel and have control on my data consumption with various devices.


      <i>news flash: not everyone wants an iPhone.</i>
      Well I agree with you on this, but this definitely opens door for T-Mo customers to have iPhone. I know quite a good number of people who have bought Jail Broken iPhones on eBay and use as their device for communication on T-Mo network.

      Since I am AT&T customer, I really don't care if AT&T buys T-Mobile here though.
      Ram U
      • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

        @Rama.NET I'm not experiencing choice at all! I had Cingular... then it became AT&T. I left AT&T for T-Mobile a few months ago... now it's going to become AT&T too!!
        :-( It's like being in the movie "Burnt Offerings" where they try to drive away from the haunted house but every road they take just keeps bringing them back to it.
        jgm@...
    • Good point @rorrr

      If those 36 million T-Mobile customers wanted an iPhone so bad, they wouldn't have gone to T-Mobile in the first place.

      Which means the author of this article is making an irrelevant point.
      LTV10
  • I'm ready for an i-Phone

    When can I buy one? Don't be haters.
    jaustin33
  • I rather purchase T Mobile my self if I could

    I refuse to be an ATT customer. Its the WORST COMPANY from a customer stand point of view.

    Deuttsche Telelom sold us out! We should all leave TMobile asap. Unless you want to be charged extra for an inferior service.

    ATT provides the following benefits to its customers:

    -- A service so poor, that is not even allowed in third world countries
    -- You will pay dearly
    -- You wont be able to user your hotspot unless you pay up what ATT wants.
    -- Your Android cap will be limited to make iPhone look good so your speed will drop from 5K to 0.5K Mbps
    -- You stand a good chance of been overcharged without noticed for services you dont comsume.
    -- You will have to review your bill every month to see if its accurate.

    Advice to ALL TMobile customers, LEAVE while you can!
    Uralbas
    • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

      @Uralbas I am planning to leave T-Mobile.

      But I am going to a prepaid service, such as Boost or Metro PCS. I will get a low-grade Android-based phone and then a really nice standalone tablet that works with WiFi.

      I don't use my phone's browser and 4.3" display enough to justify paying $500 for a phone. (I am on T-Mobile's Even More Plus plan, so while I pay less monthly, I pay full price for phones.)

      So paying $50 monthly for unlimited everything, on a 3.5" Android phone (that by the time I switch will be FroYo), a phone that will cost me maybe $300, and to also get a 10.1" tablet (not tied to a carrier), well this all makes sense to me.

      Despite T-Mobile going to AT&T, I was almost ready to switch to prepaid and use a tablet.

      Bottom line: I don't really care about T-Mobile being no longer. (Albeit if I was going to stay with T-Mobile, I would switch to another carrier since I don't like AT&T, and I don't like Sprint - former customer of both. Prepay was kinda in the cards.)

      LOL... AT&T paid $19 billion more than T-Mobile was worth. If part of that premium was based on getting customers like myself (an eight-year customer who has paid T-Mobile about $25,000) boy is AT&T in for a rude awakening.
      SanFranciscoCA
  • Good

    This is awesome for both companies. If carried out properly, everyone will share the benifits, including consumers & phone owners. I wrote a blog on this http://bit.ly/fDnwWs
    rmt99e
    • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

      @rmt99e Nobody cares enough to click through, you meaningless spammer loser.
      Joe Acerbic
      • easy now!

        @Joe Acerbic hey i'm not a spammer, I visit this site regularly. Nothing wrong with a relevant link plug!

        -R
        rmt99e
      • RE: T-Mobile customers will finally get the iPhone as AT&T acquires T-Mobile

        @Joe Acerbic He didn't write a blog post on this. He wrote exactly NINE SENTENCES that sound like they were paraphrased/copied outright from other articles I've read.
        For instance, his post cites PC Magazine as a source. A PC Mag article has the sentence "It gives T-Mobile's struggling parent, Deutsche Telekom, a gigantic cash infusion." He wrote "T-Mobile?s struggling parent, Deutsche Telekom, will also be [sic] benefit from this transaction." Half the remaining 8 sentences also sound like paraphrases that I'm too lazy to look for online. The other half don't add anything at all. :-)

        His blog has areas for technology, sports, music, etc. All the articles I looked at also seem to be about 9 sentence summaries of other articles or are just reposted YouTube videos. There's no original thought or analysis (beyond "I like X" or "I think Y is good"), making the whole point of having a blog in the first place questionable.
        jgm@...
  • What does this mean for existing AT&T iPhone users?

    How will MILLIONS of existing AT&T iPhone users be affected?
    Faster speeds?
    Access to more towers?
    More towers in new areas?
    Nothing?
    CathyCC
    • AT&T

      @CathyCC . Your questions are very relevant. However, there's two more questions you need to ask.
      Better customer service?
      More cost?
      Answering your question in order, to include the two added:
      No.
      No.
      No.
      Yes.
      No.
      Yes.

      As you can surmise, I refuse to use AT&T. I've used AT&T in the past, both for corporate and personal phones. I will not use AT&T for anything.
      DirtyDingus