AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile

AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom.

"AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile USA provides an optimal combination of network assets to add capacity sooner than any alternative, and it provides an opportunity to improve network quality in the near term for both companies' customers. In addition, it provides a fast, efficient and certain solution to the impending exhaustion of wireless spectrum in some markets, which limits both companies' ability to meet the ongoing explosive demand for mobile broadband.

With this transaction, 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 beyond current plans -- including rural communities and small towns. This helps achieve the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and President Obama's goals to connect "every part of America to the digital age." T-Mobile USA does not have a clear path to delivering LTE."

In 2006, T-Mobile won the most licenses in the FCC's spectrum auction. From what I can tell (and I can't keep the various wireless technologies straight), this was used for 3G and can and will be used for the new LTE networks (which is really 3+G but is marketed as 4G).

So hopefully my iPhone coverage gets better. If so, then I think AT&T is doing a great job competing with Verizon. They got a lot of iPhone customers to renew 2 year contracts before the Verizon iPhone came out and with this acquisition are potentially leapfrogging them in 4G coverage before the 4G iPhones come out.