AT&T buys T-Mobile

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I never had any issues with AT+T dropping calls when I had them. I really only started hearing about issues when the iPhone came out.

Yeah, AT&T's problems are highly regionalized, because it's an infrastructure issue. Ask people with iPhones in San Francisco or NYC about their issues - it was brutal for a long time, and AT&T kind of threw their hands up and said "nothing we can do."

Other places had exactly zero problems. AT&T's reactions are pretty telling, though.

[ZTAngel]

I have T-Mobile and my reception completely sucks. It's not like I live in the boondocks. I'm in a major metropolitan. I constantly lose signal and have dropped calls. I will say that T-Mobile's customer service has always been helpful in solving any of my issues. On the other hand, I use to have Sprint. Their coverage in Atlanta is excellent and I never had any issues with dropped calls. Their customer service though....ughhhhhhhh. Abysmal. I truly think Sprint has an HR policy where they're forced to hire only miserable people.

[excelblue]

I get a feeling that the authorities aren't going to let this happen. Here's why:

The merger creates a monopoly on the GSM market. GSM is the cell phone tech that is almost exclusively used everywhere in the world. There are two other common technologies: PHS, common in east Asia, and CDMA, only used in the USA (Verzion and Sprint) and China (Unicom). That means, if anyone from anywhere outside the US roams, they are restricted to roaming on this new "AT&T/T-Mobile monster".

I actually left T-Mobile because I was just tired of the contracts and nonsense, but AT&T is far worse in that regard. In fact, ever since I ended my landline and DSL service with AT&T, they've accounted for 40% of my junk mail and have outright lied to me to try to get me back.

These days, I'm with a MVNO called PagePlus Cellular which resells Verizon. Minutes are like candy: I can stop purchasing them when I don't want any more, and the vendor has no business in knowing any of my personal info; they don't even know my name .

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

Yeah, AT&T's problems are highly regionalized, because it's an infrastructure issue. Ask people with iPhones in San Francisco or NYC about their issues - it was brutal for a long time, and AT&T kind of threw their hands up and said "nothing we can do."

Other places had exactly zero problems. AT&T's reactions are pretty telling, though.

They really are at capacity in NYC though, there just isn't the bandwidth, it's a huge city full of huge buildings with cell towers on your average apartment building and the network's just absolutely overloaded. If anything Verizon getting the iPhone could ease their pain a bit.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by ZTAngel

I have T-Mobile and my reception completely sucks. It's not like I live in the boondocks. I'm in a major metropolitan. I constantly lose signal and have dropped calls. I will say that T-Mobile's customer service has always been helpful in solving any of my issues. On the other hand, I use to have Sprint. Their coverage in Atlanta is excellent and I never had any issues with dropped calls. Their customer service though....ughhhhhhhh. Abysmal. I truly think Sprint has an HR policy where they're forced to hire only miserable people.

The coverage for Sprint in Atlanta is so good because they have a major office in Atlanta.

[flirt5721]

I am not happy about this. I have had T-Mobile since '03. I have 5 lines on my plan and don't have a high bill. I do not want to have my rates increase. I have one year to figure out what I'm going to do. I have never had problems with T-Mobile reception until I moved out to Phoenix.

I do agree that AT&T has more coverage and better smart phones but I don't want to be an AT&T customer. But I guess AT&T would be better than Verizon.