D.Telekom says U.S. mobile deals could harm T-Mobile

[ehcruzan]

I think they're throwing in the towel too early.

[bobolito]

I think it is quite possible. Cingular will have much better coverage after the merge. Good coverage is what has made Verizon succeed.

[Matt]

I downloaded their annual report and saw that. It's in the required "risk" section. It is a risk, and one they may be legally obligated to mention. It can easily be mitigated, IMO, via roaming agreements and purchases of other spectrum a/o carriers. I think they are some time away from being at a competitive disadvantage, esp. with all the problems AT&T is having. Q1 closes tomorrow, so DT knows exactly how they are doing. Of course, we won't know for some time. TM is seen as a winner in LNP, so as long as they continue to grow throughout 2004, they will still be in a good position, financially, when the ATT/Cing merger closes.

The solution to coverage seems to be 850 agreements with ATT/cing, to put more pink on the map. Of course, ATT/Cing will make it costly for TM to do so, but they might not have a choice. It doesn't matter it you never actually use it, just make the map look good. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

[Matt]

Here's the full text of the DT statement

In spite of its disproportionately strong growth in terms of
customer additions, T-Mobile USA is still a player with a relatively
small market share in the United States compared to
other enterprises operating at the national level. If a consolidation
process takes place among U.S. mobile communications
companies, as announced by Cingular and AT&T-Wireless
in February 2004, and T-Mobile USA is not involved in
this process, there could be competitive disadvantages and
a negative effect on growth and profitability for the company
over the medium and long term.

[MOTOhooligan]

T-Mobile has cheap rate plans, good handsets and Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas-Hooligan. Frankly, from what I've heard their coverage is fairly good in most places. Indeed, they don't have as large a coverage area as any of the other top six wireless providers but brand image and (hopefully) building up their coverage where they own spectrum as well as roaming agreements with other carriers will allow T-Mobile to remain competitive. Sometimes, people don't want a huge corporation like Verizon or CingulAT&T, even if it is just a perception that T-Mobile is "the little guy" some people will gravitate towards them. I will probably be switching to T-Mobile when I move to Pittsburgh for a few reasons. One, T-Mobile (back when it was Voicestream) was owned by WWC which owns CellularONE, the current company I have service through and like quite a bit. Two, I'm hoping they will have the v600 or a v6XX, whatever the current model happens to be or a SuperTAC when I move and Three, Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglas-Hooligan.