Sprint voices concern over proposed AT&T, T-Mobile merger

By on Mar 21, 2011 at 7:35 AM
General March 21, 2011

The nation’s third largest wireless provider, Sprint Nextel, has issued a statement to voice its concerns over the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger. “The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, if approved by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), would alter dramatically the structure of the communications industry,” writes Sprint. “AT&T and Verizon are already by far the largest wireless providers. A combined AT&T and T-Mobile would be almost three times the size of Sprint, the third largest wireless competitor.” The company went on to say that the merged GSM carriers, along with Verizon Wireless, would control nearly 80% of the postpaid wireless market in the United States. AT&T’s CEO, Ralph de la Vega, has said that the deal should be approved by both government bodies based on historical precedence. “I think if the criteria that has been used in the past is used against this merger, I think the appropriate authorities will find there will still be plenty of competition left,” said de la Vega in a statement to Mobilized. Should the merger fall through, AT&T could owe Deutsche Telekom as much as $3 billion.

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  • Trent

    Hater in the House!!!! This is great I can now get good Phones & good priced Plans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • http://twitter.com/j5darkstone John Natalucci

      it doesnt mean anything, dude. TMO will still run independently from AT&T – it is just ownership. you wont find AT&T getting cheaper phones or plans and you wont finds TMO getting the iPhone. they arent stupid – they will keep the same branding and separation for both companies.

      • Paul H

        My money is on Deutsche Telekom giving AT&T a certain period of time after the sale that they can continue to use the name T-Mobile. At the time they can no longer use it, my guess is that AT&T will integrate the two companies like they (Cingular at the time) did with the original AT&T Wireless when they bought then.

      • marc

        except at&t has already said, that they would both be run under the at&t brand.

      • Pohbil

        John, I beg to differ with you… The creation of T-mobile has somewhat of a crazy history. Back in the middle 90′s when digital was first introduced here in the US all of the GSM companies, and there were alot of them, were scattered all over the US. I worked for one of the original companies, Aerial. We billed by the second, were very particular about the quality of phones we had on our network and our networks were the most stable of any cellular network out there. Western Wireless comes along and starts merging with other GSM companies in the US and after all were combined including Aerial it became Voicestream. All previous characteristics of other companies were completely gone…. Enter Deutsche Telekom and they announce they are going to purchase Sprint PCS. Sprint Stocks went through the roof and the very next day Deutsche Telekom announces they have come to an agreement with Voicestream and no long interested in Sprint and it then became T-mobile. All of the groups that were absorbed took on the same company characteristics as the parent company Deutsche Telekom. If this goes through…T-mobile will disappear and it will become AT&T. No doubt about it.
        The funny thing is the way their networks are set up…it will be an easy transition to melt the two together.

    • Anonymous

      Let me see if I understand this: you believe that less competition leads to more innovation?

      When is the last time that Madden made a shocking change? Not since they got the exclusive NFL license, that’s for sure. Since 2K sports could no longer challenge them, their changes have been minor and more about refining the product.

      Compare that situation to FIFA vs. Pro Evolution Soccer (you probably don’t know about this). Everyone who plays these games knew that FIFA had the lineups and Pro Evo had the superior gameplay. FIFA got their asses kicked year in and year out, and now they’ve got a product that’s as good (some would argue better) than Pro Evo. That’s what competition does.

      But sure: less competition will be good for the consumer. That makes sense.

      • http://beenswank.net brandonmccall

        “Let me see if I understand this: you believe that less competition leads to more innovation?”

        Exactly. This isn’t even about my exclamation-mark obsessed friend getting “phones and good priced plans.” It’s about monopolization.

    • http://beenswank.net brandonmccall

      Really, “hater in the house?”
      This isn’t an aggravated adolescent dissing your favorite rapper, it’s an educated observation. Sprint is completely right. Tell me this… How would you like it if, within the next 5-10 years, you only had 3, better yet 2 options to choose from for a wireless provider? That’s not a good look. People like options.
      AT&T’s track record in customer satisfaction is the worst. So the acquisition of the one other GSM company, which provided cheaper alternatives to anything AT&T offered, including hardware [not to mention T-Mobile's customer care runs laps around AT&T's] Would leave the person that prefers GSM to CDMA stuck like chuck if they don’t want pay ridiculous rates for little to no value. This deal was made out of fear. Now that Verizon has the iPhone in their smartphone line-up, AT&T [knowing they aren't good enough, and knowing that everyone knows they're not good enough] neglected to invest that 39 Billion in their network, and acquire the underdog.
      We can also, talk about the future of current subscribers, grandfathering, the future of retail associates etc. etc., but I haven’t had my coffee yet.
      I’ll leave you with this though, before you make a comment in regards to news as earth-shattering as this– you may want to think about how this affects everyone and not just yourself.

    • OrionNE

      What planet are you on..
      AT&T plans suk and phones are eh..ok.. Usually 6mo + behind. They relied too much on the iphone cash cow.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4CYQS3OZ3H6LCUVY5YHYVALS4I Blueyes

    Sprint has always been a stepchild in the cellular area…they just need to merge with Verizon and get over it. One company for CDMA and one for GSM. I’ll still with my GSM phones like I always have, way more choices.

    • Beentheir

      Sounds like your brain went on vacation. “One company for CDMA and one for GSM.” So consumers should just have two choices. Verizon and AT&T keep their prices pretty much equal so, if VZW raises prices, so will ATT. If ATT decides to charge a fee for a specific service that it has never charged for before, VZW will follow. The market needs competition to promote better pricing and quality of service.

  • Anonymous

    Isn’t someone sour lol…this merger makes more sense than one between Sprint and TMO…im just worried about pricing. As an ATT customer myself i only hope they would consider some of TMO’s price points (i know we wont get all of it.) Im hoping this doesn’t turn into a “if u want GSM technology we will rape u, cuz u have no options.” I guess only time will tell if this benefits consumers or not, i hope they truly combine and not it doesn’t just become ATT’s way all the time (which i think it will be, but hope not.) TMO was for the ppl, i hope they can teach ATT that accommodating the ppl is actually a good thing.

    • Big Papi

      Its for the people, and yet the people failed them. They tried so many different cost saving initiatives for customers and it only ended up backfiring on them with increased churn and lower profit margins. Enough for Deustke Telecom to just give them away to AT&T

    • Sfo017

      Att will screw up everything in my current plan! Wifi calling will go dead, myfaves will go dead!!! Screw this merger! Now ask me how I really feel!

    • Onesavior

      I’m sure they can teach AT&T how not to treat people, so they won’t be getting bought out. This is what happens to most of these low cost carriers, once they try to set up their own network. It’s better if they just piggyback on other carriers. They usually stand a chance to survive then.

  • Smartguy

    Sprint is just hoping VZW will buy them.

    • Anonymous

      I hope they don’t. Do you understand how terrible the mobile industry in this country would be if it was just a duopoly?

      It’d be like only having Comcast and Time Warner to provide your television and broadband needs, which is a very politely way of saying you can be fucked to the left or fucked to the right, but you’re getting fucked no matter what.

  • Anonymous

    When two unreliable networks become one, does it double the suck?

    • S0ul_sniper

      No it will blow out Verizon’s joke of 4G with 95% covering the U.S. Verizon isn’t saying anything but how could you not be worried.

      • Monique

        You do know that vzw will cover most of America with lte by next year right? Meanwhile AT&T hasn’t even released their plans for lte yet. This merger will help AT&T build out their network better but don’t underestimate vzw. They have always spent the money on building out their network. And their lte network is blazing fast.

    • Armadalepoppin

      Are you nuts!!! I live in the state of Delaware. There are more people using at&t over Verizon. Verizon data network is no where near At&t network. I’m on 3g and I and get anywhere from 3-4 mbps. With the two companies together all I can say is wow!. Verizon is OK but no where on at&t level

  • Armadalepoppin

    Sprint and Verizon are filling it already. At&t over 130 million customers. I’ll be afraid too. Both of the companies technologies together will make up 96% of the country. Good bye sprint and Verizon not to far behind.

    • Monique

      Fail! On your part. Vzw will not go anywhere. Hopefully this wil spur better pricing on Plans/phones for vzw. You’re not going to see people leaving vzw because if this. But I can see some tmobile users leaving. Vzw will still make their money. As for sprint, that’s another story.

      • Anonymous

        Better pricing, what are you smoking? They are doing this so the big two can keep their high prices with no one else to compete with. This is awful for the consumer as the high dollar price fixing will continue unchecked, best thing anyone can do is support Sprint in anyway possible.

      • Scorp

        If not better prices, better features. If AT&T starts employing some features that benefits it’s customers into both TMO and current AT&T customers it will force Verizon to offer some too. For instance, AT&T now does unlimited mobile to mobile, any carrier for free. Now they extend that to TMO customers Verizon will eventually have to do it as well instead of making people pay extra just to use ‘friends and family’. This puts pressure on both VZW and Sprint to offer more services that are as robust as a combined TMO and AT&T network can offer. Thinking that this doesn’t put pressure on Verizon is a little naive.

    • Mr. Add

      your an idiot.

  • Anonymous

    I’ll be surprised if this gets past the FCC.

    • marc

      I’ll be surprise, if it doesn’t get past them.

      • Scorp

        Exactly. All they would do is make them sell off some of the spectrum like VZW did when they bought Alltel and then it’s done.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t fret Sprint. Change your price plans to $20 for everything and within 6 months you will be the king.

  • Anonymous

    Allowing ATT to buy T-mobile would horrible for consumers. Less competition is bad for consumers, never good. This would require ATT to do less to entice consumers to switch and they will have a much easier time locking up over 120 million people for a long time. They should not be allowed to buy/merge with T-mobile.
    So instead of building a better network ATT is trying to buy pieces to make theirs better,

    The countdown to Verizon buying/merging with Sprint has began.

  • John henderson

    “Should the merger fall through, AT&T could owe Deutsche Telekom as much as $3 billion”

    This ends up being a win win for the Deutsche Telekom. If it goes through they get rid of TMO for an insane amount of money and if it doesn’t they still make $3 Billion!

  • Jason

    trent… you can kiss the good priced plans goodbye when att takes over

    as for competition left… there are no other GSM carriers, so if i want to stay with my simcard phone and not have to pay activations fees everytime i switch phones i have no choiuce but att

  • Chut Pata

    Sprint should take over Metro PCS and all those CDMA companies, or be sold to Verizon.

    • Organicgrl77

      I think that was Sprint initial problem from the beginning of have prepaid and consumers with not so good credit . I heard that was their downfall so if that was to be the case it is not good for them to purchase Metro PCS.

  • Baykine

    Remember people… Two wrongs don’t make a right. AT&T and T-Mobile are the worst. And plus, even with the buyout TMobile will not carry the iPhone and AT&T will not bring over TMobile price plans. This is strictly AT&T way to get more subscribers and to use the already existing TMobile 4G network. Verizon has nothing to worry about if the deal goes through. The only carrier that would need to worry is Sprint. Sprint would need to acquire another carrier or would need to get bought out by verizon to keep up. That’s just my opinion.

  • Anonymous

    So mcdonalds is 3x bigger than jack in the box

  • Anonymous

    I hardly think it is likely that the Banksters best friend, Barock Obama, the man who stacked his Administration with Goldman Sachs employees, is likely to raise a fingers to stop the re-monopolization of the U.S. telecom industry. Cartels are a corporate-state’s best friend! Well, best friend after war, that is.

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