AT&T went after at T-Mobile USA's network performance in newspapers ads, escalating a rivalry between the two companies that were once poised to merge, according to Bloomberg. Responding to unspecified claims by T-Mobile, AT&T ran a full-page counterattack in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The ads say that T-Mobile drops twice as many calls and its network speeds are only half as fast as AT&T's. Tension between the two companies began at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, when T-Mobile CEO John Legere called AT&T's network "crap," the article said.
AT&T had planned to acquire T-Mobile in a USD 39 billion deal. The merger proposal was foiled in 2011 after regulators raised concerns about diminishing competition in the industry. T-Mobile, however, announced in October its plans to merge with MetroPCS, a smaller carrier that focuses on prepaid customers.
