AT&T acquires T-Mobile USA. This sure is the biggest news in the telecom industry in a long time and the magnitude of this deal is huge as well. While we kept hearing Sprint and T-Mobile coming together, the 2nd largest and 3rd largest mobile carriers in US have come together to form the largest telecom entity in the country. The deal is valued at $39bln (cash+stock) and would mean 130 million customers under the same umbrella, also not forgetting that T-Mobile has good LTE network which will act as a shot in the arm for AT&T’s LTE plans.
Verizon Wireless which is until now the largest telecom provider in US (running CDMA), has under 100 million subscribers and that would mean that AT&T and TMobile would together have 1/3 more subscribers than Verizon Wireless. Thats some lead! Given that handset sales in US are so closely linked to telecom operators, it would be interesting to see how the market reacts to this news. Apple ended the exclusivity with AT&T for the iPhone recently and the next iPhone is widely expected to be a LTE enabled model. This would mean AT&T giving Verizon Wireless a stiff competition on every front.
The AT&T – T-Mobile USA deal awaits regulatory approval and if that goes through, it would mean a big change in the US tele scene.