Deutsche Telekom, Europe's largest telecommunications company and owner of T-Mobile USA, has signed a deal with AT&T to recieve 25 billion US dollars in cash and 14 billion US dollars worth in AT&T shares and in return will fork over 100% ownership of T-Mobile. Deutsche Telekom will in effect become AT&T's largest shareholder.(Source)
For those of you who are loyal T-mobile customers, as my wife and I are, I'm sure you have many questions. Fear not for I've compiled a quick FAQ from the Official T-Mobile website:
1) When will we be affected? There is no need to panic...yet looks like the acquisition will take 12 months to complete and T-mobile says until that time they remain a separate company and no changes will be made. This applies to service, rates, billing and customer service.
2) Why Is T-Mobile Doing This? Because of the compatibility of the 2 networks, the merger will be able to provide 4G LTE to 95% of the US population. For those who don't know, LTE is "Long Term Evolution". It is a very high bandwidth infrastructure with claims of theoretical download speeds of up to 100+mbps.
3) Will T-Mobile's Quality Be Reduced? T-Mobile says no, the merger will in fact "strengthen the service to customers".
4) Should You Wait To Sign Up With T-Mobile or Upgrade? Once again T-Mobile says no, now is a great time to be a T-Mobile customer, they will still offer great devices and plans.
5) Will My Plan Change as a Result of This (Meaning After the 12 months)? T-Mobile says they will continue to honor any deals entered into before the change of ownership.
6) Will T-Mobile get the iPhone? who cares? If I wanted to overpay for an inferior product, I would be an Apple customer already;)
Here is the original Press Release from T-Mobile.
How exactly will this effect customers that pay for the off contract "Even More Plus" plan? That was one of many great features of T-Mobile that you just can't find anywhere else.
Also, will the grandfathered "Unlimited" plans remain truly unlimited or with the fine print grow ever decreasing data caps?
I have to say this comes as a shock. I am upset by this to say the least, as I am sure many other people are. Aside from AT&T's known network congestion, maybe they can bring LTE to nearly every American who wants it? Maybe this is what America needs to start to catch the rest of the world in wireless bandwidth? Then again, maybe it's another way for wireless companies to get even more money from consumers. What do you think? Leave comments below.
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