AT&T Explains Benefits of Merger with T-Mobile

Mobile phone carrier AT&T has filed with the Federal Communications Commission its Public Interest Statement regarding the previously announced acquisition of T-Mobile USA.

Those to benefit the most from the merger of the two companies would be end-users, the carrier claims, noting that one of the results of this transaction would be the deployment of 4G LTE to more than 97 percent of the population.

Initially, AT&T announced that, following the merger, it would be able to deliver 4G LTE to over 95 percent of the United States population, but the company is now committed to delivering the technology to 97.3 percent.

“This deployment will help fulfill this Administration's pledge to connect every part of America to the digital age, and it will create new jobs and economic growth in the small towns and rural communities that need them most,” the carrier claims.

AT&T announced that it has made the filing publicly available through www.MobilizeEverything.com, though certain parts of it, which include competitively confidential information, were not published there.

In the filling, AT&T also talks about its mobile broadband leadership, which is challenged by a surge in data usage, which determined network capacity constraints more severe than any other wireless carrier in the country.

“Over the next five years, data usage on AT&T's network is projected to skyrocket as customers 'mobilize' all of their communications activities, from streaming HD video and cloud computing to a range of M2M applications like energy management, fleet tracking, and remote health monitoring,” AT&T notes.

The wireless carrier also explains that the proposed merger would help it resolve any issues that might emerge due to increases in data usage, and that it would also eliminate dropped calls, and lower data speeds.

“The transaction's benefits arise from the uniquely complementary nature of AT&T and T-Mobile's GSM/HSPA+ technologies and spectrum holdings,” the carrier also notes.

Following the merger, a significant portion of T-Mobile cell sites are expected to be integrated into AT&T's network. The network integration would be completed in about nine months, the wireless carrier announced.