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AT&T To Buy Cricket

Jul 12, 2013, 4:34 PM by Rich Brome
updated Jul 12, 2013, 6:19 PM

AT&T and Leap Wireless have reached a deal for AT&T to buy the smaller regional carrier, which operates under the Cricket brand. AT&T will keep and expand the Cricket brand to additional U.S. cities. The purchase includes all of Leap's assets, including 3,400 employees, 5 million customers, a CDMA and LTE network, and radio spectrum licenses covering 137 million people. Leap's LTE technology and mostly PCS (1900 MHz) and AWS (1700 MHz) radio spectrum holdings align with AT&T's network and LTE phones, which should ease integrating the two networks. One notable exception is the Lower 700 MHz A-block license for Chicago that Leap recently obtained in a license swap with Verizon Wireless. AT&T will sell that spectrum, since it is not compatible with AT&T's current phones. When asked, an AT&T spokesman declined to say how and when the Cricket CDMA network would be phased out, saying "we'll share details of our go-forward plan once the deal closes, which we believe will be 6 to 9 months from now." AT&T will pay $15/share for Leap, or about $1.2 billion total. About 30% of Leap shareholders have already agreed to vote in favor of the deal. The deal will be subject to FCC and Department of Justice review. AT&T tried and failed to buy T-Mobile in 2011, after the government objected. T-Mobile recently completed its purchase of MetroPCS, Cricket's main direct competitor.

The Verge »

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Comments

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This forum is closed.

Jaden10

Jul 12, 2013, 4:46 PM

Here we go again.

Here we go again. I hope the FCC, DOJ, FTC and everyone else shoots it down. AT&T does not need more spectrum, like Verizon they have the mother lode. The Deathstar is out again.

OmegaWolf747

Agreed. All these little companies getting swallowed up by the big guys will only lead to a great oligopoly.

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DarkStar

Why doesn't AT&T need more spectrum. They do not yet a 100% coverage in the US.

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Jarahawk

Agreed.

Rich Brome

Technically, every carrier needs more spectrum. A lot more.

So more precisely, the question is how much should AT&T have relative to the other carriers?

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Pink Jazz

I'd bet if Verizon (who has less of a need of spectrum than AT&T) were buying Cricket instead, everyone here would be praising it, but since AT&T is buying Cricket, they have to be criticized for it. Totally unfair for AT&T.

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ReaperXero

Jul 12, 2013, 9:01 PM

They're buying it to dismantle it?

Am I reading this right? They're buying Cricket to dismantle the CDMA because of compatability?

DarkStar

They want the Spectrum that Leap has to increase their coverage.

T Bone

From the sounds of it, they aren't going to dismantle Cricket, it will remain a separate, pre-paid subsidiary within at&t, but they plan to integrate the two networks in order to improve coverage for both. Every person I've known who used Cricket ha...
(continues)

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Rich Brome

They're buying it for the prepaid brand, the customers (and the employees and infrastructure to support them,) and the radio spectrum.

Naturally they will seek a unified network of compatible technology, as with all mobile network mergers. Cricket ...
(continues)

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Jarahawk

Jul 13, 2013, 12:48 PM

AT&T just doesn't get it, do they?

No. AT&T. You will NOT be allowed to swallow up yet another small fry. Request denied.

Rich Brome

IMHO, it will probably happen. T-Mobile bought Metro. Cricket is much smaller.

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Joshmo

Jarahawk said:
No. AT&T. You will NOT be allowed to swallow up yet another small fry. Request denied.

Turns out AT&T just revoked their offer. Something about upsetting some guy on some board who didn't matter t...
(continues)

DarkStar

Why?

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