AT&T buys Mexican carrier Iusacell for $2.5 billion, creates first-ever North American mobile service area

19

att featured big

Typically when we think of the big 4 carriers duking it out for air wave supremacy, the battleground lies here on US soil. Today, AT&T is taking the fight down south, announcing a deal to buy Mexican carrier Iusacell for $2.5 billion. That’s certainly a lot of cheese and a huge play by AT&T who is now looking to expand their reach beyond US borders.

Currently, Iusacell’s network blankets about 70% of Mexican citizens and the deal would bring their 8.6 million customers under AT&T’s wing. AT&T expects the deal to close early next year and after alls said and done, their network would total a little over 400 million customers across the US and Mexico, creating what AT&T calls “the first-ever North American mobile service area.” This means that AT&T customers in the US, could travel between both countries without loss of service or roaming charges (and vice versa). This also presents a unique opportunity for competition in Mexico, where things like unlimited calling and texting are simply unheard of. AT&T stepping into the ring should help shake things up a bit.

But nothing is set in stone just yet. AT&T still needs to gain the approval of both the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (Mexico’s telecommunications regulator) and the National Foreign Investments Commission before they’re in the clear. As for the fate of Iusacell, it’s not clear if AT&T will rebrand it as their own, but apparently their headquarters will remain in Mexico City.

[AT&T]

19
Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

Working Project Ara device shown off on stage with interchangeable modules

Previous article

The next Chromecast competitor is being made by…Walmart?

Next article

You may also like

19 Comments

  1. I hear they have completely anonymous plans. No call tracking, no message tracking, etc. All for a small price of 10-grams of pot/month. Or one anal bag of coke!

    1. Not cool but I LOL’d anyway.

      1. If you’re a mule, I dont judge! :D

        1. “Here, let me get this bag of coke out of my a*s so you can sniff it.. Even better have your children sniff it and blame it on somebody else…” Good thing you have guns so you can protect yourself and families.. Your original comment just shows how ignorant you are and the color of your neck.

          1. More than you think body.. Put some lotion on your neck.. Looks like you have a rash…

  2. They should have bought Rogers in Canada instead.

    1. Quite a few years back Rogers was called Rogers AT&T here in Canada.
      Anyways, it’s not truly a North American mobile service area until it includes Canada…typical mistake.

    2. I’d rather communicate using string and two cans than welcome American Toads and Tools into Canada as a mobile service provider.

      1. lol, it’s Canada…relax.

  3. 400 million customers? That’s basically the population of mexico and the united states. I doubt babies have phones, I also doubt everyone is suddenly switching to at&t. I hope this isn’t just an inversion tax plan for at&t.

    1. Yeah, they worded it wrong on here. AT&T worded it very confusingly, just like all of the other US providers. It would be the “first-ever North American Mobile Service area to cover 400 million Mexico & U.S. consumers, businesses.”

      So they wouldn’t have 400 million customers, there would just be 400 million people living in area’s where AT&T would have reception. Very misleading.

  4. North American plan… no, more like south of the 49th parallel plan

  5. Probably still charge you for data and roaming in Mexico, knowing att

  6. North America? What aboot Canada?

    1. Don’t worry bobdude5, you can be certain that a lot of people reading this post didn’t even know Mexico is in North America.. Some others have never agreed with the idea of referring to Canada as North America either. Or even worse, when they hear “America” they can only think of their own country and nothing else. They don’t even accept there is a whole continent called America.

  7. LOL Canada is part of North America , in fact it is the largest land mass of North America and AT&T are not here.

  8. Sweet now you can make your Mexican meth deals without roaming fees

    1. BEST.COMMENT.EVER

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *