It has been announced by AT&T and Deutsche Telekom AG that T-Mobile USA would be bought by AT&T for $39 billion, creating the largest wireless carrier in the USA in the process. The takeover means that the number of wireless providers available to US customers would now be limited to a choice of three. In the press release, Randall Stephenson, AT&T CEO said “It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people.”
For iPhone users, the takeover essentially means that AT&T coverage and network infrastructure will increase as the company inherits use of all of the cellphone towers previously held by T-Mobile. The move essentially jumps AT&T’s network forward by 5 years although the However, the deal does not necessarily mean that the iPhone will be available on the T-Mobile network, nor that the AT&T 4G rollout will be any faster.
The major downside to this is that with only three networks in place in the US, two of which carry the iPhone, the reduced competition means a reduced pressure on wireless providers to keep their wireless data costs low. In this case, it will not immediately affect users of the iPhone since T-Mobile was not an iPhone carrier in the first place, although previous rumors had suggested that the iPhone may have moved to the network at some point in the future.
However, in the long term, the lack of choice means that more consumers drift towards AT&T’s network which is now larger than the Verizon consumer base by around 25%. It is also unclear if the move would change AT&T’s attitude towards data limiting, especially now that their infrastructure has been bumped by such a significant amount.
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