AT&T To Buy DIRECTV for $67 Billion

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I've had them (Bell South Mobility/Cingular) now AT&T for cellular since about 95 or so. Never had any big problem to speak of. You must really hate AT&T to spend $1300 before you even know how good/bad DirecTv is going to be under their control.
 
Yes, your exactly right. Here is a little timeline of the "new" AT&T

1984 - Southwestern Bell Communications is spun off

1987 - SBC acquires Metromedia Cellular, becomes 3rd largest cellular provider

1993 - Moves headquarters from St. Louis to San Antonio

1995 - Changes name to SBC Corporation

1996 - Acquires Pacific Telesys

1998 - Acquires SNET (Southern New England Telephone)

1998 - Merges with Ameritech

1999 - Purchase Comcast Cellular

2000 - Merges wireless into 50/50 joint venture with Bell South, wireless division becomes Cingular

2005 - Acquires AT&T Corporation

2005 - Changes name from SBC Corp. to AT&T Inc.

2006 - Merges with Bell South

2007 - Wireless division (now wholly owned) becomes AT&T Wireless

2008 - Headquarters move from San Antonio to Dallas

2008 - Purchases Dobson Cellular

2008 - Purchases Centennial Cellular

2013 - Purchases Leap Wireless

2015 - Acquires DirecTV

Nice post.
I believe cingular wireless 60/40 though SBC 60% and bell south 40% ownership
 
AT&T is not the ILEC for my area, I’m in Verizon territory, so I have no direct firsthand experience with AT&T in that regard. I did have AT&T as my cell provider when I was still an iPhone user, and service was beyond awful, dealing with the guys at a few of the local corporate AT&T Wireless stores was a nightmare. I too paid a few hundred in ETFs to get away from AT&T, but in all fairness, it was 50/50 between them and Apple why I left. On the landline side of things, I can’t say much, since I have no experience with it, but their U-Verse service just seems hokey compared to other providers. The complaints about picture quality, the limited number of simultaneous HD channels that can be viewed/recorded and the relatively slow internet speed. Not sure how much of that is still relevant today but I think most of their area’s max out at only 24Mb these days, with 45Mb and 75Mb in limited areas.

For a feel good AT&T story, where I work we have approx. 25 field service technicians who travel all around the country (and world) to repair and service the machines that we build. AT&T was the provider that company phones were distributed through, there were a lot of complaints about service so they switched to T-Mobile. After 2 months, just about everyone wants AT&T back. :)

I’ve been out of contract with D* for about a year, I can’t really take the slowness of my HR34 anymore, but don’t want to attempt to get an HR44 since I don’t want to be locked into another contract, in case things go south under AT&T. In hindsight I guess I should have tried harder to get an HR44 last year, and then I’d only have one year left on my contract, and it will probably be a year before we see any major changes.
 
Yes, your exactly right. Here is a little timeline of the "new" AT&T

1984 - Southwestern Bell Communications is spun off

1987 - SBC acquires Metromedia Cellular, becomes 3rd largest cellular provider

1993 - Moves headquarters from St. Louis to San Antonio

1995 - Changes name to SBC Corporation

1996 - Acquires Pacific Telesys

1998 - Acquires SNET (Southern New England Telephone)

1998 - Merges with Ameritech

1999 - Purchase Comcast Cellular

2000 - Merges wireless into 50/50 joint venture with Bell South, wireless division becomes Cingular

2005 - Acquires AT&T Corporation

2005 - Changes name from SBC Corp. to AT&T Inc.

2006 - Merges with Bell South

2007 - Wireless division (now wholly owned) becomes AT&T Wireless

2008 - Headquarters move from San Antonio to Dallas

2008 - Purchases Dobson Cellular

2008 - Purchases Centennial Cellular

2013 - Purchases Leap Wireless

2015 - Acquires DirecTV
Its now at&t Not capitalized
 
Its now at&t Not capitalized
I guess you need to write a letter to Dallas and tell them that then, because in their annual reports and 10-Q, 10-K, etc... they refer to themselves as "AT&T Inc." and "AT&T" the lower case is for marketing and branding purposes.
 
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I wonder what a new AT&T costs would be with offering subscribers mobile wireless that was mentioned. I'd like to know if it's tempting.


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Its now at&t Not capitalized

Just some stupid marketing gimmick. Some suit in SBCs marketing department probably got paid an undeserved large salary to come up with the idea to stylize it in lowercase and to change the logo to look slightly 3D and to transpose the white and blue.
 
So the obvious question for Uverse users is, do they get access to Directv programming such as NFL Sunday Ticket, NHL Center Ice, MLB EI...etc?
 
You are complaining that att is so oo bad and won't unlock your phone in a time frame good for you .... at least the will, when I was with Sprint and moved companies, they refused all together to unlock my S4, there was nothing wrong with it at all. Finally gave in and bought a new phone,. Thank you Sprint ..... they are MUCH worse to work with.
with the only difference that unlocking phones now it the law and should be done in a timely fashion are required by the FCC
 
Some people just hate to hate .... without looking to see what may happen.
Sadly there are plenty here to hate.
They could tell them that they were all getting a Million dollars tax free and they would still hate.
Says someone with completely nothing to gain by this.
 
You are complaining that att is so oo bad and won't unlock your phone in a time frame good for you .... at least the will, when I was with Sprint and moved companies, they refused all together to unlock my S4, there was nothing wrong with it at all. Finally gave in and bought a new phone,. Thank you Sprint ..... they are MUCH worse to work with.
According to the FCC agreement, it should be done in 2 days. There are exceptions, however, this is just another case of ATT being too big to take care of their own business.

Personally, I'll go from $250/month with ATT to $130/month with T-Mobile and I can tether my phone if I want to. I'll go from $198 with DirecTV to $83 with Cox after pre-paying my DVR fees. Within a year, I will recoup those prepaid fees and will save $100/month for as long as I keep the solutions.

In my opinion...ATT will continue to overcharge for services because people pay it. As an investor...that's good for you. As the idiot paying such a high price, that was bad for me. I guess we'll both be happy going forward. I'm not "hating to hate", I simply refuse to pay such egregious amounts for phone/TV.
 
From : https://www.fcc.gov/device-unlocking-faq

Q: Will my phone automatically be unlocked when my service contract has been fulfilled? It depends on your service provider. Participating providers will notify you at the time your postpaid device is eligible for unlocking if the device is not automatically unlocked. For prepaid devices, participating providers will notify you when your device is eligible for unlocking at the point of sale, at the time of eligibility or through a clear and concise statement of the provider's policy on its website. When your device is eligible, some providers may automatically unlock it remotely. In this case, providers of postpaid devices are not required under the new standards to notify you at the time when the device is eligible for unlocking. Other providers may require you to formally request to have your phone unlocked. Under the new standards, participating providers have agreed to unlock eligible devices, provide you with unlocking instructions, or initiate an unlocking request to the device manufacturer – or provide an easily understood explanation of denial – within two business days of receiving an unlock request.
 
So the obvious question for Uverse users is, do they get access to Directv programming such as NFL Sunday Ticket, NHL Center Ice, MLB EI...etc?

Nope, at least not yet. http://about.att.com/newsroom/att_dtv_faq.html#general

Will my existing TV services (DIRECTV or AT&T U-verse) change as a result of this acquisition?
No, your existing services will not change.

When can I add NFL Sunday Ticket to my U-verse plan?
NFL Sunday Ticket is currently only available to DIRECTV subscribers because of contractual limitations. AT&T U-verse customers interested in NFL Sunday Ticket can call 1-800-288-2020 to find out more.
 
According to the FCC agreement, it should be done in 2 days. There are exceptions, however, this is just another case of ATT being too big to take care of their own business.

Personally, I'll go from $250/month with ATT to $130/month with T-Mobile and I can tether my phone if I want to. I'll go from $198 with DirecTV to $83 with Cox after pre-paying my DVR fees. Within a year, I will recoup those prepaid fees and will save $100/month for as long as I keep the solutions.

In my opinion...ATT will continue to overcharge for services because people pay it. As an investor...that's good for you. As the idiot paying such a high price, that was bad for me. I guess we'll both be happy going forward. I'm not "hating to hate", I simply refuse to pay such egregious amounts for phone/TV.
Right on!

With T-Mobile I have unlocked their phones and it has been a nice experience usually taking no more than 24 hours. All we can hope is that Congress makes software unlocks legal again.
 
According to the FCC agreement, it should be done in 2 days. There are exceptions, however, this is just another case of ATT being too big to take care of their own business.

Personally, I'll go from $250/month with ATT to $130/month with T-Mobile and I can tether my phone if I want to. I'll go from $198 with DirecTV to $83 with Cox after pre-paying my DVR fees. Within a year, I will recoup those prepaid fees and will save $100/month for as long as I keep the solutions.

In my opinion...ATT will continue to overcharge for services because people pay it. As an investor...that's good for you. As the idiot paying such a high price, that was bad for me. I guess we'll both be happy going forward. I'm not "hating to hate", I simply refuse to pay such egregious amounts for phone/TV.

AT&T and Verizon get by charging more due to they have by far the best coverage, kind a like Mercedes Benz gets by charge 80K for a station wagon, they are the premium service but to many is not worth it, T-mobile coverage is much better than it used to be though, I will admit I will switch to T-mobile if AT&T ever forces me off my current plan.

Many AT&T customers are on cheaper grandfathered plans which can save lots of money over current mobile share plans, luckily AT&T retains these customers(including me) because of this.
 
Right on!

With T-Mobile I have unlocked their phones and it has been a nice experience usually taking no more than 24 hours. All we can hope is that Congress makes software unlocks legal again.
A trick with AT&T is you can unlock you phone they day after you get it even if your technically not suppose too. This is how.
Purchase new phone at discounted price for example I paid $299 for my iphone 6 plus, take home, swap in sim from one of my other lines. go to at&t website, unlock phone with online form using newly swapped in sim card phone number, submit. Swap original sim back in.
Will be unlocked within 48 hours..... everytime :)
 
A trick with AT&T is you can unlock you phone they day after you get it even if your technically not suppose too. This is how.
Purchase new phone at discounted price for example I paid $299 for my iphone 6 plus, take home, swap in sim from one of my other lines. go to at&t website, unlock phone with online form using newly swapped in sim card phone number, submit. Swap original sim back in.
Will be unlocked within 48 hours..... everytime :)
not sure what the SIM has anything to do with unlocking. What is locked is the device itself, not the the phone number and/or SIM. FWIW, I was able to port my cell number from ATT to T-Mo and my iPhone was locked.

Seeing the Unlock form on the ATT site, nowhere does it ask for the SIM number but rather the IMEI number. This is to be expected.
 
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