The world of Telecom shakes today, as AT&T takes over the reigns of T-mobile's US mobile division. This 25 billion dollar deal is going to (hopefully) help AT&T mobile network service. As an Iphone holder, I can atest...they're mobile service is horrid. I'm not sure if the fault lay with AT&T's towers, or Apple's made in China phone, but either way, I hope this will help bring the service to a much higher standard. I like AT&T, I like their history, what they've done, and how far they've brought the telecommunication industry. Without Bell Labs, we wouldn't have many of the inventions that we have. (Look in the near future for a full history and report on AT&T)
T-Mobile, which originally came from, if you remember VoiceStream Wireless. I vaguely remember the company myself, in fact I only remember hearing the name. VoiceStream was spun off of another merger, but ultimately VoiceStream was bought by a German Telecom company. In fact it was bought by the largest Telecom company in all of Europe, Deutsche Telekom. They wanted to own a wireless company in the states, to give them some profit overseas. Under the direction of Deutsche Telekom, Voicestream was turned into T-Mobile.
On its own, going up against the then struggling AT&T, T-mobile did pretty well for itself. its only been recently that the Mobile giant has began to show its age. Verizon and AT&T have been giving T-mobile a schlacking like none other, and I suppose its been falling behind. If you look at it from a tech point of view, T-mobile doesn't have much to offer. It put out in a act of desperation the Mytouch, which was supposed to go up against the iphone, but it wasn't even close.
So what does this mean? Hell if I know, I don't work for AT&T's corporate division. But from what I can gather, AT&T is going to be making use of T-mobile's cell towers which is good for us with AT&T phones. It will free up network space, and allow AT&T to catch up to the 4G tech. (which really doesn't deserve the name 4G, but thats for another topic)
Now, here's what I'm thinking... in the 80's AT&T was broken up for anti trust suits. Meaning, they were a monopoly and had to break apart to avoid being shut down. Now AT&T has reformed, and is once again gobbling up companies, before this, if you remember, AT&T bought Cingular. Obviously, unlike in the 1980's there's more telecom competition around now. Sprint-Nextel still exist, and AT&T's main rival Verizon is still a thorn in their side. I'll be keeping an eye on this story, and as I stated earlier, an AT&T/Telecommunications history time line will be one of my future posts.
Anyone here excited by this merger? Scared to death? Chime in.
Kind of similiar to what's happening in the MMA world. The UFC has bought up all bar 1 of it's major rivals.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, a monopoly in the telecommunications industry is NEVER a good thing!
As T-Mobile customer, I am furious. T-mobile has been a great company for me and my family, we have been customers since I was high school, for almost a decade. I am no fan of the iphone, preferring to stick with my blackberry. T-mobile also has a fantastic network, I have never been plagued with the problems I hear my friends have. I also hear horrors about AT&T customer service, where T-mobile has always been supportive. The biggest thing that I am afraid of is the gutting of T-mobile's excellent contracts and plans. They have month to month plans that no other major cell phone provider has, and probably the greatest family plan of them all. This is a tragedy for any T-mobile user if they begin to decimate our old plans when renewals come up.
ReplyDeleteeventually i bet there will just be one major carrier that almost everyone has, and it will be totally better then every other haha
ReplyDeleteThis could become a.monopoly.
ReplyDeletegreat background on this, bro!
ReplyDeletethis has already become a monopoly
ReplyDeleteWell, as a t-mobile user, Im glad that I will have better service, but my contact is gonna be fucked =[
ReplyDeleteholy shit dude, this freaks out a lot of us
ReplyDeleteI'm a t-mobile customer as well. And I'm not happy about this. AT&T's customer service is horrid, and I left them for a reason.
ReplyDeleteMeh... Not much I can do.
Yeah, I'm also a t-mobile customer. Not too excited about this, I've gotta say.
ReplyDeleteTalking of monopoly...
ReplyDeleteI hope they don't go after Sprint. Sprint is the only ISP that isn't thinking about changing the structure of how you pay for the internet.
ReplyDeleteinteresting news
ReplyDeleteI thought this affected me at first, but I guess T Mobile UK is entirely different. Would be weird/cool/MASSIVE COMPETITION for the other companies here if they bought them though
ReplyDeletemeh. I have verizon
ReplyDeletewell good for them
ReplyDeleteConsidering AT&T's recent behavior, I'm not thrilled about it acquiring anything.
ReplyDeleteHuh, didn't hear about this until now :P
ReplyDeleteI use tmobile so I'm kinda worried lol
not affecting me, not yet, at least.
ReplyDeletegreat blog.
+follow
hmm...weird. I'm sticking with my Verizon for now.
ReplyDeletelol they did it,it will be a huge cooperation imo
ReplyDeleteRIP T-mobile it was good for competition to be fueled. Now hoping Sprint with tis true unlimited plan wins in the end. Now Sprint join Google voice thats another plus for them.
ReplyDeleteYeah i think this is a huge step up for AT&T. Followed! alphabetalife.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't bode well for competition, but maybe this is the boost in performance that they need.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to get bigger.
ReplyDeleteFollowing.
Wow I didn't see this coming, 1+ follower.
ReplyDeletewhoa this is the first i heard of this! also nice design. following.
ReplyDeleteThis disappoints me. I'm sick of giant corporations swallowing smaller ones. Sooner or later Verizon will dominate the phone market while Comcast is dictating what we can and can't watch and how fast our internet goes.
ReplyDeletei am not from usa yupii
ReplyDeleteIn the GSM cellphone market, wouldn't this be a monopoly? I don't see this getting approved. Also, where does ATT take the cash to buy tmobile? Shouldn't they put their money into upgrading their network so it doesn't blow by definition anymore?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good move for the industry, I don't see what's so bad about it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that T-Mobile and At&t should have stayed their own companies. but hey. it happened.
ReplyDeleteVerizon ftw!
ReplyDeletewow did not know about this either way im sticking to verizon
ReplyDeleteI'm not the least bit excited by this, as this means there is only one company offering GSM service in the US - the only kind of mobile phones you see in the rest of the world. I like being able to pop a different SIM in when I'm travelling, and one does not have that option with Sprint or Verizon.
ReplyDeleteI hope T-Mobile gets to keep their T-Mobile girl. She's hot
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update, followin!
the big fish eat the litte fish to get bigger ;)
ReplyDeletefollowed you, hit me back, follow!
nice background information
ReplyDeletei will follow you dude. :D
I have AT&T... sucks ;_;
ReplyDeleteman whats next? will they buy out other companies north of border? (Rogers, Bell, etc)
ReplyDeleteCool blog, will follow you
this is a damned outrage.
ReplyDeletesupported!
collegeanon.blogspot.com
good post
ReplyDelete+ follower:)
I can't see this being a good thing.. Although I feel like I've read it on another blog? I think I follow too many.
ReplyDeleteNo way would I be scared, it's about time AT&T changed their look a bit. Not only that but this may mean better 4G/3G coverage.
ReplyDeleteyeah the telco's have us by the balls in australia and its never a good thing.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I made a similar post earlier today! It's crazy, isn't it? I wonder if Sprint is going to get gobbled up by Verizon next? I would like to think Sprint is a little bigger, but that duopoly kinda scares me!
ReplyDeleteI'll be following you, it seems we have similar interests :D
Interesting post
ReplyDeletenope, Canadian. merger has no effect on me :(
ReplyDeletenice one!
ReplyDelete+ follower:)
@obi not Optus! Every time they screw up they give me a better plan! Haha.
ReplyDeleteYou know what's funny? Your blog about Bootable USBs would have probably been better than mine XD
ReplyDeleteYou're still free to do one about the subject though, it's not like I own the subject now lol. I'd give it a week or so though personally, by which point people would have probably completely forgotten about mine =]
I look forward to reading yours!
I cant wait for this to go through. +Following
ReplyDeletegonna be interesting to see how this goes
ReplyDelete