The cheapest way out of the iMess?

AT&T has announced that it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion in order to improve its coverage and capacity, primarily for data/smartphone services. A towering sum, but indeed a cheap solution to all the capacity problems and user dissatisfaction in conjunction with the launch of iPhone services in 2007. The 80-fold increase in wireless-data usage has led to widespread connectivity issues and a massive perception problem, usually referred to as the “iMess”. Improving a the service is a must to prevent a massive exodus to the competitors. Although 39 billion sounds like a lot, its just the start. Although a lot of hope seems to be tied to new flashy 4G technology – there is really no cheap shortcut to providing better services and higher data rate. Face it – its still mainly about more base stations and denser networks …and many more invested dollar in concrete, steel and fiber access.

(Thanks Pietro for the pointer)

Read John Abells full article in Wired

About Jens Zander

Professor Jens Zander is professor in Radio Communication Systems at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. He has been among the few in Swedens Ny Teknik magazine's annual list of influential people in ICT that have been given the epithet “Mobile Guru”. He is one of the leading researchers in mobile communication and is the Scientific director of the industry/academia collaboration center Wireless@KTH. His research group focuses on three main areas – the efficient and scalable use of the radio frequency spectrum, economic aspects of mobile systems and application and energy efficiency in future wireless infrastructures.
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