Did T-Mobile buy AT&T?
No, T-Mobile did not buy out AT&T Internet. Still, there have been some lately significant modifications in the connection between the two businesses.
T-Mobile 2021 closed a huge $26 billion to combine with Sprint, the third and fourth biggest cellphone provider in the US. Proposed in 2018 but hampered by antitrust issues, the agreement saw T-Mobile surpass AT&T as the second-largest cellphone provider in the US behind Verizon. T-Mobile has been swift in implementing and promoting 5G networks and superfast 5G speeds to grab fresh customers after the deal was finalized in April 2020.
Likewise, in 2018 AT&T—which was already the major pay-TV player in the US—entered media and entertainment by paying $85 billion for Time Warner. But in 2021 AT&T had second thoughts and started selling significant media holdings while concentrating on improving wireless and internet options instead.
With AT&T intending to sell its television business to Discovery, Inc. for $43 billion in September 2021, this fresh emphasis on connection services and the building of 5G followed. This spin-off produced the new Warner Bros. Discovery, a public limited company with assets including CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. studio, and the Discovery network. Using the money from this agreement, AT&T paid off debt accumulated during TimeWarner's purchase.
Additionally, in 2021, AT&T negotiated two separate agreements with T-Mobile to provide access to customers of one another. First, AT&T struck a $14 billion 10-year contract allowing the two firms' cellular consumers to use one other's networks and gain improved coverage generally throughout the nation.
Second and more significantly, in December 2021, T-Mobile also acquired AT&T’s largest prepaid wireless brand for $6.8 billion namely Cricket Wireless. This move enhances T-Mobile’s prepaid wireless segment, and in return, enables AT&T to concentrate on postpaid smartphone plans and 5G networks.
It is the latter acquisition of Cricket Wireless that can be viewed as the buy of the major AT&T telecom asset by T-Mobile. Nonetheless, even though $6.8 billion is not a small change, it does not signify T-Mobile going on to buy AT&T in its entirety let alone a controlling stake in it as it is currently valued at $140 billion.
They also explored an even larger deal of $20 billion where they would consolidate their wireless infrastructures into a new joint venture, which would mean integrating their cell tower properties. However, the discussions reached a standstill in the first half of 2022 because of the differences in the value and the structure of the deal.
Although T-Mobile has signed network access deals and prepaid customers, T-Mobile has not owned AT&T, or at least not most of it. AT&T remains independent but has become less diversified with its most recent spinoff of a media subsidiary.
In the future, these two telecommunication giants are expected to remain invested in the development and deployment of 5G networks as a strategic priority. Such partnerships prove that the current mega-billion dollar partnerships of rival wireless players are feasible and can be achieved as long as the right types of integration and asset exchanges are made. There could be other partnership prospects associated with infrastructure, spectrum, or bundling wireless plans with video streaming services.
However, T-Mobile gobbling up AT&T is not feasible at all. Regulators would have significant antitrust issues with the removal of a Big 3 wireless carrier. However, T-Mobile remains the assertive ‘Un-carrier’ that continues to challenge the traditional industry norms while AT&T attempts to recover via a newly focused connectivity strategy after the TimeWarner acquisition. Both will remain locked in a battle over the mobile subscribers in the context of 5G technology, symbiotically reliant on one another but naturally adversarial at heart.
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