Very early this morning, AT&T held a conference call to outline the details of the $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom, with the key points being in the planned network transition at the completion of the purchase, which also hinges on regulatory approval.
AT&T has confirmed that it plans to transition the current T-Mobile 3G network to LTE once the purchase is complete and approved, with customers being moved off the AWS network onto AT&T 3G via deployment of dual-band W-CDMA cellsites and new multi-mode handsets, along with automatic roaming at no additional cost before completing the transition.
AT&T will still deploy the majority of its LTE network on the 700MHz spectrum already owned, while using the 1700MHz it also owns and combining it with the newly acquired T-Mobile infrastructure to deploy LTE in rural areas, emphasizing its goal to cover 95% of the country with the expanded network and stating a belief that the coverage goal will help it convince regulators to approve the purchase.
