SG Comics Presents: AT&T And T-Mobile

AT&T made a big announcement this past weekend—on a Sunday of all days. The carrier has committed to purchasing T-Mobile for $39 billion, a deal that will take 12 months to complete. The acquisition is said to help more quickly expand AT&T's LTE network coverage. But merging the two largest GSM carriers in the US, leaves little room for competition.

Consumers, especially those who require GSM over CDMA, may suffer from less competitive pricing plans. Even if T-Mobile is kept as a separate subsidiary, there's no longer need for it to compete against AT&T. It will be interesting to see how Verizon and Sprint respond to this development in the upcoming months.