Reports are coming in from all over this morning that AT&T has bought fellow domestic cell carrier T-Mobile USA. According to the
press release, AT&T will acquire the company from Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG in a deal that's valued at $39 billion in cash and stock. The transaction is expected to close within a year, pending all of the usual paperwork, and of course regulatory approval (which probably isn't a complete given, considering how large these two companies are).
The primary impact of a deal like this will be to set up AT&T with one of the largest cellular networks in the US. AT&T's announcement pointed out that the company's data traffic grew 8,000 percent over the past four years, with the expectation that it will increase by another order of magnitude between 2010 and 2015; with the addition of the T-Mobile spectrum and cell infrastructure, AT&T will be in much better shape to handle the onslaught of high-demand users and devices.
Of course, AT&T's long-suffering iPhone users have something else to look forward to when the deal closes: more consistent wireless coverage and better voice service. Per the press release: "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. At closing, 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. The combination will increase AT&T's network density by approximately 30 percent in some of its most populated areas, while avoiding the need to construct additional cell towers." Increased network density in some of the biggest iPhone trouble spots (large urban areas like NYC, San Francisco, etc.) may finally bring AT&T's coverage consistency up to where it needs to be.
AT&T is also committing to a massive 4G buildout onto the former T-Mobile network alongside the legacy AT&T buildout, adding about 47 million phone users under the anticipated 4G footprint (4G LTE service would cover about 95% of the US population under the buildout plan). This might lead us to a 4G iPhone on the combined GSM network of the future. Of course, that's all speculation at this point, but with Verizon now carrying the iPhone as well, the pressure will probably be on Apple to make a phone compatible with the next generation networks that all of the carriers are crowing about. As always, we'll see.
