AT&T ready to pay up on their Spectrum to T-Mobile
The AT&T/T-Mobile deal fell through in December of last year, ending with AT&T giving up 3 billion dollars and 1 billion in spectrum. Today AT&T and T-Mobile have submitted and application to the FCC, to transfer the AWS spectrum over to T-Mobile. This should be the last bit that AT&T has to pay to T-Mobile for the repercussions of the loss of the purchase. T-Mobile has more money now, along with no plans for a future when compared to the other main carriers in the US. Our bet is that they still might be sold in 2012.
(via The Verge)
AT&T’s Deal to Buy T-Mobile is a Bust, Sort of
AT&T announced today that it’s plans to merge with T-Mobile have now been dropped. AT&T will now be paying Deutsche Telekom around 3 billion dollars for their troubles if you will, and about 1 billion in spectrum. The deal will allow each others customers to share their networks.
It is not clear at all how the networks will share the spectrum, they have some different bands and it will take some effort to work out. Who knows, this could help T-Mobile switch over to LTE in the future if they decided to go that route. This saga is still going strong and hopefully it pushes forward to benefit everyone in the future.
(via The Verge)
Dish Network would buy T-Mobile
The T-Mobile and At&t merger saga is still going, but who knows if it will ever take place. If it doesn’t, the CEO of Dish Network, Joseph Clayton has said that he would love to partner with T-Mobile for their spectrum. Dish has already been buying spectrum up this year with a LTE network planned to try to take on Verizon and At&t. They are even looking to Sprint if they have to, either way, the carrier wars keep getting interesting as time rolls by.
US Government Attempts to Block AT&T – T-Mobile Merger
The United States govenrment has filed an anti-trust complaint in an attempt to block AT&T’s attempted $39billion purchase of T-Mobile USA Inc. The Justice Department complaint says
The Justice Department complaint was filed today in federal court inWashington. The U.S. is seeking a declaration that Dallas-based AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE), would violate U.S. antitrust law and a court order blocking any arrangement implementing the deal.
It would appear that this whole merger could be dead in the water unless AT&T can get creative. Only time will tell.
AT&T Unlimited Data Getting Choked Out
AT&T has announced that they are going to be throttling data (slowing speeds) for their “heavy” unlimited data users, starting October 1st. They claim that their network is already full and they need to allow more smart use of the spectrum for others to benefit with their data connections.
However they do make it very clear that this will not affect the “standard” unlimited data user. What they mean by that is, the common user can use their phone like normal and will not see a change in their network speeds. Only users that use excessive amounts of data, through gaming, and streaming tons of music and video will have to be throttled.
AT&T has had several issues with their network being compacted in the past several years and they want to take any precautionary step they can, to keep the experience a positive one. The amount of spectrum they have will not change any time soon unless the merger with T-Mobile does take place, so this is the first step to freeing up their network.
The amount of people using the excessive data is only 5% of users and they will send notifications letting you know you are getting close to being throttled in the grace period. Every start to the customers billing cycle the speeds will be refreshed back to normal. How do you feel about this? Are you a 5% person or will it not apply to you at all and you think it is a great thing?
