Posts tagged gsm
AT&T agrees to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion
Mar 20th
AT&T and Deutsche Telekom just announced the sale of T-Mobile USA for $39 billion — $25 billion cash and $14 billion in AT&T stock, giving Deutsche Telekom an 8% stake in the U.S. telecom giant. If the deal passes regulatory approval, which the companies estimate will take up to 12 months to complete, the combined subscriber base would exceed 130 million, making AT&T by far the largest mobile operator in America (followed by Verizon and Sprint). Moreover, since AT&T and T-Mobile are the country’s only major GSM operators, AT&T would gain a monopoly on GSM cell service in the U.S.
AT&T says the deal will bring “straightforward synergies” due to ”complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations.” The company also claims the deal will expand the footprint of its LTE 4G service by 46.5 million people, to 294 million, or 95% of the U.S. population. T-Mobile USA itself had no clear plans to migrate to LTE, however, suggesting that AT&T intends to use T-Mobile’s AWS spectrum (1700/2100 MHz) for LTE, alongside its own 700 MHz bands.
If the deal does not receive regulatory approval, AT&T will have to pay T-Mobile a $3 billion “breakup fee,” transfer AWS spectrum it is currently not using for LTE deployment to T-Mobile, and sign a roaming agreement to give T-Mobile access to its network.
Read on for more about the deal.
The Verizon iPhone 4
Jan 7th
It’s finally here– after years of speculation, Apple’s iPhone has at last launched on Verizon’s CDMA network in the U.S. Executives from both companies presented the new device, an iPhone 4 with a CDMA radio instead of GSM/HSDPA, at a media event in New York this morning. The device is otherwise the same and will launch on February 10 for the same price as on AT&T (16GB for $199, 32GB for $299 on a 2-year contract). Verizon is, however, tossing in a Wifi mobile hotspot feature, which will allow up to 5 local clients to access the internet through the phone’s CDMA 3G connection.
Being a CDMA phone, the Verizon iPhone 4 will not be able to use voice and data simultaneously on 3G, nor will it be able to roam outside the United States. On the upside, it does have a redesigned antenna that sounds like it may fix the “deathgrip” issue plaguing the standard iPhone 4 (gripping the phone from a joint on the side causes it to entirely lose its cell reception).
The end of AT&T’s exclusive hold on the iPhone should allow Apple to significantly boost its U.S. sales as it battles an onslaught of competitors running Android and other mobile OSes. From Verizon’s perspective, the iPhone could have made a great introduction to its 4G LTE network, but integrating today’s first-gen LTE chipsets into the iPhone 4 would’ve required significant re-engineering, which Apple wasn’t willing to do.
More info: Verizon Wireless
Press release after the break.
