How will the AT&T T-Mobile USA merger affect you?
Surely there are easier ways for T-Mobile USA to get iPhone than to sell out to AT&T. Or for AT&T to dramatically improve the reach of its high-speed network or to increase its cache of Android handsets. Kidding aside, today's merger announcement between AT&T and T-Mobile is simply stunning. It's an atomic blast occurring right before one of the biggest wireless tradeshows of the year -- CTIA, which officially opens on March 22nd.
The real question: What does it mean for you the AT&T or T-Mobile customer?
Messiness is the easy answer, but uncertainty first. While the boards of directors for AT&T and T-Mobile USA parent company Deutsche Telekom agreed to the deal in principle, regulators and shareholders must still grant approval. Changes won't be immediate. AT&T and Deutsche Telekom expect the deal to take about 12 months to close. US regulators may not look too favorably to reducing a market by one to just three major carriers. The merger conceptually creates the largest US carrier. If the two companies combined now, there would be more than 129 million subscribers based on fourth calendar quarter earnings releases. By comparison, during the same time period, Verizon had 102.2 million subscribers.
