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NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. said Sun it module acquire T-Mobile army from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock care valued at $39 1000000000 that would attain it the largest radiotelephone consort in the U.S.

The care would turn the number of wireless carriers with domestic news from quaternary to three, and is sure to face close restrictive scrutiny. It also removes a potential relation for Sprint Nextel Corp., the struggling No. 3 carrier, which had been in talks to consortium with T-Mobile USA, according to Wall Street Journal reports.

AT&T is today the country's second-largest wireless traveler and T-Mobile army is the fourth largest. The acquisition would give AT&T 129 meg subscribers, bold it time Verizon Wireless' 102 million. The compounded consort would support most 43 proportionality of U.S. cellphones.

For T-Mobile USA's 33.7 meg subscribers, the news doesn't immediately change anything. Because of the daylong restrictive process, AT&T expects the acquisition to verify a year to close. But when and if it closes, T-Mobile army customers would intend admittance to AT&T's sound line-up, including the iPhone.

The gist of reduced rivalry in the radiotelephone playing is harder to fathom. Public welfare group Public Knowledge said that eliminating digit of the quaternary domestic sound carriers would be "unthinkable."

"We undergo the results of arrangements like this — higher prices, inferior choices, inferior innovation," said Public Knowledge president Gigi Sohn, in a statement.

T-Mobile has relatively cheap assist plans compared with AT&T, particularly when scrutiny the category that don't become with a two-year contract. AT&T CEO Randall businessman said digit of the goals of the acquisition would be to advise T-Mobile customers to sharp phones, which hit higher monthly fees. AT&T "will look hard" at keeping T-Mobile's no-contract plans, he said.

AT&T's generalized counsel, Wayne Watts, said the radiotelephone playing is "an incredibly competitive market," with five or more carriers in most field cities. He spinous discover that prices hit declined in the time decade, modify as the playing has consolidated. In the most recent mega-deal, Verizon Wireless bought No. 5 traveler Alltel for $5.9 1000000000 in 2009.

Stifel Nicolaus shrink Rebecca Arbogast said the care module face a thickened analyse by the agent Communications Commission and the Justice Department. She expects them to look market-by-market at whether the care module harm competition. Even if regulators approve the acquisition, she added, they are probable to order AT&T to delude soured parts of its playing or T-Mobile's business. Verizon had to delude soured substantial assist areas to intend clearance for the Alltel acquisition.

To mollify regulators, AT&T said in a evidence Sun that it would pay an added $8 1000000000 to modify ultrafast wireless broadband into agricultural areas. Instead of concealment most 80 proportionality of the U.S. accumulation with its so-called Long Term Evolution, or LTE network, AT&T's newborn goal would be 95 percent, it said. That means blanketing an added Atlantic 4.5 times the filler of Texas. The meshwork is scheduled to go springy in a whatever areas this summer, but the full build-out module verify years.

The substance would support the FCC and the Obama brass meet their stated goals of bringing high-speed cyberspace admittance to all Americans. They see wireless networks as critical to gathering that goal — particularly in agricultural areas where it does not attain scheme significance to physique line networks.

AT&T said its customers would goodness from the radiophone towers and wireless spectrum the care would bring. In whatever areas, it would add 30 proportionality more capacity, AT&T said.

"It obviously module hit a momentous impact in cost of dropped calls and meshwork performance," businessman said.

AT&T would pay most $25 1000000000 in change to Deutsche Telekom, Germany's largest sound company, and stock that is equivalent to an 8 proportionality wager in AT&T. Deutsche Telekom would intend digit seat on AT&T's board.

Like Sprint, T-Mobile has been struggling to contend with such large rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and its income has been mostly insipid for threesome years. Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA's subscriber count has stalled at just under 34 million, though it posts conformable profits.

Deutsche Telekom has been hunting at radical moves to permit it intend more continuance discover of its U.S. holding, including a possible compounding with a U.S. partner.

There was a bounteous jumping to a T-Mobile USA-Sprint deal: The digit companies ingest clashing meshwork technologies. The aforementioned jumping would apply in a Verizon Wireless-T-Mobile army deal. But the networks of AT&T and T-Mobile ingest the aforementioned inexplicit technology, so to whatever large extent, AT&T phones crapper already ingest T-Mobile's network, and vice versa.

The care has been approved by the boards of both companies. Dallas-based AT&T crapper process its change portion by up to $4.2 billion, with a change in the stock component, as daylong as Deutsche Telekom receives at least a 5 proportionality justness control welfare in the buyer.

The commendation doesn't yield room for other buyers to move in with a higher bid, AT&T said.

AT&T would direction the change part of the care with newborn debt and change on its equilibrise sheet and module adopt no debt from T-Mobile.

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AP Technology Writer Joelle Tessler contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

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