NEWS: Cingular Gets Approval for Acquisition Deal as Soon As 2004

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Sun, 23 Nov 2003 23:38:31
GMT, "[email protected]" <Michelle Johnson> wrote:

>On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 16:02:06 GMT, "Steven M. Scharf"
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>"Bill Roland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>news:6pCvb.3241$Ac3.784@lakeread01...
>>> I just can't see the Fed's allowing an AT&T Wireless/Cingular
>>> merger/aquisition.
>>
>>The feds will do whatever big business wants, as long as there are still at
>>least two competitors.
>>
>The "feds" also broke up AT&T back in '84. They wont allow a merger
>between Cingular and AT&T, it would destroy T-Mobile.

The "feds" don't care about T-Mobile -- it's not domestic.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

---

› See More: NEWS: Cingular Gets Approval for Acquisition Deal as Soon As 2004

What an idiotic statement. You think that because a German company owns
T-Mobile, that the government doesn't have a say-so in what they do or
doesn't care about what they are doing? Let me answer that one for you:
wrong.


"John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
> In <[email protected]> on Sun, 23 Nov 2003
23:38:31
> GMT, "[email protected]" <Michelle Johnson> wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 16:02:06 GMT, "Steven M. Scharf"
> ><[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >>"Bill Roland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >>news:6pCvb.3241$Ac3.784@lakeread01...
> >>> I just can't see the Fed's allowing an AT&T Wireless/Cingular
> >>> merger/aquisition.
> >>
> >>The feds will do whatever big business wants, as long as there are still
at
> >>least two competitors.
> >>
> >The "feds" also broke up AT&T back in '84. They wont allow a merger
> >between Cingular and AT&T, it would destroy T-Mobile.
>
> The "feds" don't care about T-Mobile -- it's not domestic.
>
> --
> Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
> John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

What an idiotic statement. You think that because a German company owns
T-Mobile, that the government doesn't have a say-so in what they do or
doesn't care about what they are doing? Let me answer that one for you:
wrong.


"John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
> In <[email protected]> on Sun, 23 Nov 2003
23:38:31
> GMT, "[email protected]" <Michelle Johnson> wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 16:02:06 GMT, "Steven M. Scharf"
> ><[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >>"Bill Roland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >>news:6pCvb.3241$Ac3.784@lakeread01...
> >>> I just can't see the Fed's allowing an AT&T Wireless/Cingular
> >>> merger/aquisition.
> >>
> >>The feds will do whatever big business wants, as long as there are still
at
> >>least two competitors.
> >>
> >The "feds" also broke up AT&T back in '84. They wont allow a merger
> >between Cingular and AT&T, it would destroy T-Mobile.
>
> The "feds" don't care about T-Mobile -- it's not domestic.
>
> --
> Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
> John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

I think that if anything happens, it will be a Cingular/AT&T Wireless
deal. Here's what I see AT&T Wireless doing to make themselves
attractive (off the top of my head):

-Dropping their IT Payroll down to almost zilch. Brings up the
profitability.
-Selling off all overseas stakes in other providers. Ditto.
-Recent focus in financials on profitability. They've moved from
"here's how many new people we're getting" to "here's how much we're
making per subscriber".

I also found it interesting that Rogers in Canada will be dropping the
"AT&T" from their name, again some time in mid '04.

Finally, I think it would be easier to work around NTT's 16% stake in
AWE than D. Telekom's hold on TMobile.

"PDA Man" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Is it TMOBILE? Is it ATTWS? This is gonna be FUN!!
>
> Cingular Wireless has gotten approval from its parent companies SBC
> Communications and BellSouth to acquire another leading U.S. carrier. The
> news means Cingular could acquire one of its rivals by as early as next
> year. It has also sparked the latest round of "guess which carriers will
> merge". Insiders are betting that Cingular will make a bid for either AT&T
> Wireless or T-Mobile. T-Mobile's parent, Deutsche Telekom, has denied recent
> merger rumors, saying it is dedicated to its U.S. operation. Most insiders
> are currently betting on a Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger. Such a move would
> create a North American GSM carrier with more than 40 million subscribers.
>
> SOURCE : Businessweek Online (Subscription
> Required)http://lists.fiercemarkets.com/c.htm...d3r5,gvx7,5kmr
> ,bqzq
>
> Visit Wireless World at http://wirelessway.blogspot.com for the latest in
> Wireless Technology News and Info! Free Drawing for Aluminum Palm /Clie
> case!!

I think that if anything happens, it will be a Cingular/AT&T Wireless
deal. Here's what I see AT&T Wireless doing to make themselves
attractive (off the top of my head):

-Dropping their IT Payroll down to almost zilch. Brings up the
profitability.
-Selling off all overseas stakes in other providers. Ditto.
-Recent focus in financials on profitability. They've moved from
"here's how many new people we're getting" to "here's how much we're
making per subscriber".

I also found it interesting that Rogers in Canada will be dropping the
"AT&T" from their name, again some time in mid '04.

Finally, I think it would be easier to work around NTT's 16% stake in
AWE than D. Telekom's hold on TMobile.

"PDA Man" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Is it TMOBILE? Is it ATTWS? This is gonna be FUN!!
>
> Cingular Wireless has gotten approval from its parent companies SBC
> Communications and BellSouth to acquire another leading U.S. carrier. The
> news means Cingular could acquire one of its rivals by as early as next
> year. It has also sparked the latest round of "guess which carriers will
> merge". Insiders are betting that Cingular will make a bid for either AT&T
> Wireless or T-Mobile. T-Mobile's parent, Deutsche Telekom, has denied recent
> merger rumors, saying it is dedicated to its U.S. operation. Most insiders
> are currently betting on a Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger. Such a move would
> create a North American GSM carrier with more than 40 million subscribers.
>
> SOURCE : Businessweek Online (Subscription
> Required)http://lists.fiercemarkets.com/c.htm...d3r5,gvx7,5kmr
> ,bqzq
>
> Visit Wireless World at http://wirelessway.blogspot.com for the latest in
> Wireless Technology News and Info! Free Drawing for Aluminum Palm /Clie
> case!!

On Fri, 05 Dec 2003 04:57:45 GMT, Melee <[email protected]> wrote:

>On 4 Dec 2003 10:32:24 -0800, [email protected] (WAW) wrote:
>
>>I think that if anything happens, it will be a Cingular/AT&T Wireless
>>deal. Here's what I see AT&T Wireless doing to make themselves
>>attractive (off the top of my head):
>>
>>-Dropping their IT Payroll down to almost zilch. Brings up the
>>profitability.
>>-Selling off all overseas stakes in other providers. Ditto.
>>-Recent focus in financials on profitability. They've moved from
>>"here's how many new people we're getting" to "here's how much we're
>>making per subscriber".
>>
>>I also found it interesting that Rogers in Canada will be dropping the
>>"AT&T" from their name, again some time in mid '04.
>>
>>Finally, I think it would be easier to work around NTT's 16% stake in
>>AWE than D. Telekom's hold on TMobile.
>
>The government would never allow AT&T and Cingular to merge. It would
>destroy T-Mobile leaving them to brought out and then after, there
>will be one GSM provider in the country - a monopoly.

Not really. The government doesn't use technology to determine a
monopoly. The fact is there are seven nationwide cellular carriers.
The technology they use is irrelevant and with seven there's no way a
consolidation of two would be considered a monopoly.

If the government allowed Comcast to swallow up AT&T Broadband,
there's no way in hell they'd stop amerger of Cingular and AT&T
Wireless. Cable modem users rarely have a choice in terms of
ISPs/cable providers. Contrast that to cell service which has the most
options of any consumer telecommunications service around.

On Fri, 05 Dec 2003 04:57:45 GMT, Melee <[email protected]> wrote:

>On 4 Dec 2003 10:32:24 -0800, [email protected] (WAW) wrote:
>
>>I think that if anything happens, it will be a Cingular/AT&T Wireless
>>deal. Here's what I see AT&T Wireless doing to make themselves
>>attractive (off the top of my head):
>>
>>-Dropping their IT Payroll down to almost zilch. Brings up the
>>profitability.
>>-Selling off all overseas stakes in other providers. Ditto.
>>-Recent focus in financials on profitability. They've moved from
>>"here's how many new people we're getting" to "here's how much we're
>>making per subscriber".
>>
>>I also found it interesting that Rogers in Canada will be dropping the
>>"AT&T" from their name, again some time in mid '04.
>>
>>Finally, I think it would be easier to work around NTT's 16% stake in
>>AWE than D. Telekom's hold on TMobile.
>
>The government would never allow AT&T and Cingular to merge. It would
>destroy T-Mobile leaving them to brought out and then after, there
>will be one GSM provider in the country - a monopoly.

Not really. The government doesn't use technology to determine a
monopoly. The fact is there are seven nationwide cellular carriers.
The technology they use is irrelevant and with seven there's no way a
consolidation of two would be considered a monopoly.

If the government allowed Comcast to swallow up AT&T Broadband,
there's no way in hell they'd stop amerger of Cingular and AT&T
Wireless. Cable modem users rarely have a choice in terms of
ISPs/cable providers. Contrast that to cell service which has the most
options of any consumer telecommunications service around.

On 4 Dec 2003 10:32:24 -0800, [email protected] (WAW) wrote:

>I think that if anything happens, it will be a Cingular/AT&T Wireless
>deal. Here's what I see AT&T Wireless doing to make themselves
>attractive (off the top of my head):
>
>-Dropping their IT Payroll down to almost zilch. Brings up the
>profitability.
>-Selling off all overseas stakes in other providers. Ditto.
>-Recent focus in financials on profitability. They've moved from
>"here's how many new people we're getting" to "here's how much we're
>making per subscriber".
>
>I also found it interesting that Rogers in Canada will be dropping the
>"AT&T" from their name, again some time in mid '04.
>
>Finally, I think it would be easier to work around NTT's 16% stake in
>AWE than D. Telekom's hold on TMobile.

The government would never allow AT&T and Cingular to merge. It would
destroy T-Mobile leaving them to brought out and then after, there
will be one GSM provider in the country - a monopoly.

On 4 Dec 2003 10:32:24 -0800, [email protected] (WAW) wrote:

>I think that if anything happens, it will be a Cingular/AT&T Wireless
>deal. Here's what I see AT&T Wireless doing to make themselves
>attractive (off the top of my head):
>
>-Dropping their IT Payroll down to almost zilch. Brings up the
>profitability.
>-Selling off all overseas stakes in other providers. Ditto.
>-Recent focus in financials on profitability. They've moved from
>"here's how many new people we're getting" to "here's how much we're
>making per subscriber".
>
>I also found it interesting that Rogers in Canada will be dropping the
>"AT&T" from their name, again some time in mid '04.
>
>Finally, I think it would be easier to work around NTT's 16% stake in
>AWE than D. Telekom's hold on TMobile.

The government would never allow AT&T and Cingular to merge. It would
destroy T-Mobile leaving them to brought out and then after, there
will be one GSM provider in the country - a monopoly.

TMobile has some of the best backing in the industry. Even if it did
go away, there would still be Verizon, Nextel and Sprint (though maybe
not for long). I think as long as Verizon and Nextel would still be
around, 3-way competition would be enough to approve a merger.
>
> The government would never allow AT&T and Cingular to merge. It would
> destroy T-Mobile leaving them to brought out and then after, there
> will be one GSM provider in the country - a monopoly.

TMobile has some of the best backing in the industry. Even if it did
go away, there would still be Verizon, Nextel and Sprint (though maybe
not for long). I think as long as Verizon and Nextel would still be
around, 3-way competition would be enough to approve a merger.
>
> The government would never allow AT&T and Cingular to merge. It would
> destroy T-Mobile leaving them to brought out and then after, there
> will be one GSM provider in the country - a monopoly.

"Melee" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> The government would never allow AT&T and Cingular to merge. It would
> destroy T-Mobile leaving them to brought out and then after, there
> will be one GSM provider in the country - a monopoly.

A monopoly would apply to an industry, not the use of a particular
technology within an industry. Thus, there would still be Verizon, Nextel
and AT&T (ignoring the lack of Sprint here). That would not be a monopoly.

Tom Veldhouse

"Melee" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> The government would never allow AT&T and Cingular to merge. It would
> destroy T-Mobile leaving them to brought out and then after, there
> will be one GSM provider in the country - a monopoly.

A monopoly would apply to an industry, not the use of a particular
technology within an industry. Thus, there would still be Verizon, Nextel
and AT&T (ignoring the lack of Sprint here). That would not be a monopoly.

Tom Veldhouse

Western is a CDMA carrier for their own customers. They support TDMA and now
GSM for roaming. They are adding GSM to their towers using 1900 mhz spectrum
acquired from T-Mobile (formerly voicestream who was at one time a
subsidiary of Western).




"Aboutdakota" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> WAW wrote:
> > I think that if anything happens, it will be a Cingular/AT&T Wireless
> > deal. Here's what I see AT&T Wireless doing to make themselves
> > attractive (off the top of my head):
> >
> > -Dropping their IT Payroll down to almost zilch. Brings up the
> > profitability.
> > -Selling off all overseas stakes in other providers. Ditto.
> > -Recent focus in financials on profitability. They've moved from
> > "here's how many new people we're getting" to "here's how much we're
> > making per subscriber".
> >
> > I also found it interesting that Rogers in Canada will be dropping the
> > "AT&T" from their name, again some time in mid '04.
> >
> > Finally, I think it would be easier to work around NTT's 16% stake in
> > AWE than D. Telekom's hold on TMobile.
>
> Yes, however, if there was a Cingular/AT&T WS deal, I think that the
> newly formed wirless carrier would probably ally T-Mobile more than
> crush it (at least for now). Cingular/T-Mobile have some attractive
> deals going on with each other, and I think the new company and T-Mobile
> would "swap" coverage areas, meaning that T-Mobile would be responsible
> for building out into more rural areas in some instances, and Cingular
> would be responsible to build out in other areas, thus helping spread
> the GSM coverage.
>
> I also think that Cingular is very interested in Western Wireless.
> Western Wireless, being primarily a rural wireless service provider, is
> not very profitable, if at all (depending upong the time). I have heard
> rumours that Western Wireless is going to sell out to Cingular, and
> suddenly right after those rumours, Western Wireless announced it is
> going to build an 850/1900 GSM/GPRS network (interesting, isn't it?).
> the acquisition of Western Wireless, which almost all of the markets it
> operates in do not overlap with Cingular markets, would hardly be a
> problem with 850 A/B spectrum cap. It would also give Cingular a huge
> advantage to have a much larger native network.
>
> Not only that, but AT&T and Cingular are Western's largest roaming
> partners, and AT&T alone controls almost 20% of Western's revenue from
> roaming from its own customers. If a Cingular/AT&T deal were to arise,
> Western Wireless would be at the mercy of the new carrier not only for
> revenue, but also for allowing its customers to roam. Of course,
> there's also the idea of a hostile takeover, too.
>
> If Cingular/AT&T/Western Wireless could all unite, I think we would see
> (after the bugs worked out) a massively large, stable, native network
> coverage area.
>
> ==AD
>

Western is a CDMA carrier for their own customers. They support TDMA and now
GSM for roaming. They are adding GSM to their towers using 1900 mhz spectrum
acquired from T-Mobile (formerly voicestream who was at one time a
subsidiary of Western).




"Aboutdakota" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> WAW wrote:
> > I think that if anything happens, it will be a Cingular/AT&T Wireless
> > deal. Here's what I see AT&T Wireless doing to make themselves
> > attractive (off the top of my head):
> >
> > -Dropping their IT Payroll down to almost zilch. Brings up the
> > profitability.
> > -Selling off all overseas stakes in other providers. Ditto.
> > -Recent focus in financials on profitability. They've moved from
> > "here's how many new people we're getting" to "here's how much we're
> > making per subscriber".
> >
> > I also found it interesting that Rogers in Canada will be dropping the
> > "AT&T" from their name, again some time in mid '04.
> >
> > Finally, I think it would be easier to work around NTT's 16% stake in
> > AWE than D. Telekom's hold on TMobile.
>
> Yes, however, if there was a Cingular/AT&T WS deal, I think that the
> newly formed wirless carrier would probably ally T-Mobile more than
> crush it (at least for now). Cingular/T-Mobile have some attractive
> deals going on with each other, and I think the new company and T-Mobile
> would "swap" coverage areas, meaning that T-Mobile would be responsible
> for building out into more rural areas in some instances, and Cingular
> would be responsible to build out in other areas, thus helping spread
> the GSM coverage.
>
> I also think that Cingular is very interested in Western Wireless.
> Western Wireless, being primarily a rural wireless service provider, is
> not very profitable, if at all (depending upong the time). I have heard
> rumours that Western Wireless is going to sell out to Cingular, and
> suddenly right after those rumours, Western Wireless announced it is
> going to build an 850/1900 GSM/GPRS network (interesting, isn't it?).
> the acquisition of Western Wireless, which almost all of the markets it
> operates in do not overlap with Cingular markets, would hardly be a
> problem with 850 A/B spectrum cap. It would also give Cingular a huge
> advantage to have a much larger native network.
>
> Not only that, but AT&T and Cingular are Western's largest roaming
> partners, and AT&T alone controls almost 20% of Western's revenue from
> roaming from its own customers. If a Cingular/AT&T deal were to arise,
> Western Wireless would be at the mercy of the new carrier not only for
> revenue, but also for allowing its customers to roam. Of course,
> there's also the idea of a hostile takeover, too.
>
> If Cingular/AT&T/Western Wireless could all unite, I think we would see
> (after the bugs worked out) a massively large, stable, native network
> coverage area.
>
> ==AD
>