AT&T withdraws T-Mobile merger papers from the FCC....

[ViRGE]

i don't get it...you already have that in at&t, don't you?

the nice thing in other parts of the world is you can switch carriers with your existing phone without worrying about bands...but if there was only one gsm network in the US that wouldn't be a benefit any longer.

Yes and no. T-Mobile's non-AWS holdings abut AT&T's - AT&T having them would mean AT&T would have more bandwidth in those frequency blocks.

Really I was mostly looking forward to AWS largely going away. It's AWS that screws things up for everyone.

 

[Thegonagle]

Yes and no. T-Mobile's non-AWS holdings abut AT&T's - AT&T having them would mean AT&T would have more bandwidth in those frequency blocks.

Really I was mostly looking forward to AWS largely going away. It's AWS that screws things up for everyone.

I thought it was AT&T's intent to use AWS for greater LTE data coverage and capacity. I doubt that it was ever going to go away.

 

[Oyeve]

Wow, Tmo still needs to jump on someones LTE wagon though.

 

[Hogan773]

i don't get it...you already have that in at&t, don't you?

the nice thing in other parts of the world is you can switch carriers with your existing phone without worrying about bands...but if there was only one gsm network in the US that wouldn't be a benefit any longer.

How is it half the price? I looked at their plans and it seems they were about the same price.

 

[vshah]

How is it half the price? I looked at their plans and it seems they were about the same price.

its not quite half, but their new bring your own device value plans are much cheaper.

also a lot of tmo customers are on older plans. i pay around $210 for 5 lines, 4 with unlimited data and texting.

honestly I couldn't care less about LTE, it doesn't make much difference for my use cases. But i agree TMO does need it, otherwise they won't be able to survive.

 

[SunnyD]

Yes and no. T-Mobile's non-AWS holdings abut AT&T's - AT&T having them would mean AT&T would have more bandwidth in those frequency blocks.

Really I was mostly looking forward to AWS largely going away. It's AWS that screws things up for everyone.

Honestly, it's AT&T that screws things up for everyone, since the AWS bands are used extensively in Europe and Asia.

 

[Fox5]

Wow, Tmo still needs to jump on someones LTE wagon though.

Meh, they're a value carrier. So long as they keep on upgrading HSPA (and from what I recall, they have plans to upgrade it to 500Mbps), I'm ok with them.

 

[ViRGE]

Honestly, it's AT&T that screws things up for everyone, since the AWS bands are used extensively in Europe and Asia.

AWS is uniquely North American. In Europe those frequencies are used by IMT and DCS.

 

[fumanstan0]

Meh, they're a value carrier. So long as they keep on upgrading HSPA (and from what I recall, they have plans to upgrade it to 500Mbps), I'm ok with them.

Yeah, HSPA+ can scale pretty high so I don't see why people make such a big deal about the 4G branding when that technology can certainly compete with LTE.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Yeah, HSPA+ can scale pretty high so I don't see why people make such a big deal about the 4G branding when that technology can certainly compete with LTE.

Because in AMERICA.... people don't understand this, so we have to use 4G branding, but when you look elsewhere, they're still pumping 3.75G HSPA+. Though I find the whole 3.5, 3.75G thing funny too simply because the networks are trying to market a speed boost in general.

Honestly, it's AT&T that screws things up for everyone, since the AWS bands are used extensively in Europe and Asia.

2100 is used in Europe/Asia and that's not AWS. Look at all the popular world phones like the SGS2. Does it have AWS? Nope. The iPhone 4/4S doesn't have AWS.

 

[Fox5]

AWS is uniquely North American. In Europe those frequencies are used by IMT and DCS.

Does AWS have any advantages? You'd think having separate frequencies for uplink and downlink could allow for higher speeds and less interference.

 

[ViRGE]

Does AWS have any advantages? You'd think having separate frequencies for uplink and downlink could allow for higher speeds and less interference.

There are no advantages that I'm aware of.