AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion

AT&T says it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $39 billion. Wow!

The merger — one of the largest since the onset of the financial crisis — would combine the second and fourth largest cellular carriers in the nation, bringing together AT&T’s 95.5 million wireless subscribers with T-Mobile’s 33.7 million

Now two of the nation’s worse carriers(dropped calls/no service) will join forces and try to improve their networks. I know that in several locations T-Mobile has towers where AT&T doesn’t, so this could be a good thing for those.

This is great for AT&T and not so good for consumers, as T-Mobile is one of the most aggressive priced carriers in terms of plans.

We will see how this plays out, but plan to pay more if you are a T-Mobile customer at some point.

Keep in mind you do have options, Verizon and Sprint remain independent and several other local carriers.

It would appear that this move is an attempt to fight of what is supposed to be another big rumor that Google is acquiring Sprint, which would make sense as well.

Now a total of about 130 million users on a network with ultra fast HSPA+ coverage

In a press release, the two companies stated that AT&T and T-Mobile USA customers “will see service improvements – including improved voice quality – as a result of additional spectrum, increased cell tower density and broader network infrastructure,” noting that as soon as the deal closes, AT&T “will immediately gain cell sites equivalent to what would have taken on average five years to build without the transaction, and double that in some markets.”