Readers of tech blog know well that for the past few years AT&T is not been able to match the network capacity of it’s biggest competitor Verizon and hence is under attack. For now AT&T has taken another path by buying T-Mobiles. AT&T has announced a deal with Deutsche Telekom to acquire T-Mobile, the country’s fourth largest wireless provider. Though still some government scrutiny remained but the agreement has already been approved.
Some of the details for the deal are as below:
-As a result of the deal, AT& will pay approximately $39 billion to Deutsche Telekom for T-Mobile USA. One of Deutsche Telekom executive will join AT&T’s board and will also get about 8 percent ownership stake in AT&T.
– T-Mobile’s 35 million (about) customers will be accessible to AT&T now. Verizon has about 100 million subscribers in the U.S and while AT&T has about 95 million. With this merger, in terms of subscribers AT&T will far past Verizon.
– The deal will help to achieve the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and President Obama’s goals to connect “every part of America to the digital age.” AT&T commits to a significant expansion of robust 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) deployment to 95 percent of the U.S. population to reach an additional 46.5 million Americans including rural communities and small towns. T-Mobile USA does not have a clear path to delivering LTE.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s key quotes from the release:
“This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future. It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people. Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more. During the past few years, America’s high-tech industry has delivered innovation at unprecedented speed, and this combination will accelerate its continued growth.”