Well, let me be clear, that I really dont know much more about this stuff than the average person (we aren't privvy to details, especially post merger - there are serious legal restrictions about what can be discussed between the companies - there is a 'clean room' process where information exchange is vetted).
My 'guess' is that once the merger goes through, AT&T will provide incentives in the form of free or strongly discounted device upgrades, short term discounts plans for renewing your contract, etc... to move to their phones on their plans.
This makes things a lot easier for them. They get you off of the TMO "4G" network onto their network, they get you on to their devices on their contract (which will eventually cost you more).
As far as advice on a preemptive move, I really can't offer anything. I'm not on a consumer plan, and am really not familiar with whats out there. One thing I can speculate on and feel strongly about is that AT&T is going to want to raise your rates eventually, and if you are locked into a 2 year contract price, that's going to be difficult to do (unless they find a way to force you off, which wouldn't surprise me).
As far as the merger goes, the thing that really grates me is that AT&T is publicly trying to make is sound like your current device will just magically start working on both networks after the merger goes through, thusly improving your 'service'. This is simply not true.
NinjaEdit:
More reading info... someone just sent me this article, which I have only just skimmed, but it sounds pretty interesting...
http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=272330Insurance News.com wrote:
EW YORK, Aug. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In late July, Bursor & Fisher announced a new website,
http://www.FightTheMerger.com, where AT&T customers could retain the law firm to file arbitration cases challenging AT&T's takeover of T-Mobile under the Clayton Antitrust Act. Today the firm announced it has had more than 14,000 visitors to the website, and more than 1,000 have retained Bursor & Fisher to file arbitration cases seeking to stop the merger.
"There seems to be a real groundswell against this merger," said Scott A. Bursor, one of the lawyers representing the customers. "The good news is that it can be stopped. AT&T's contracts give every customer the right to arbitration. And we've assembled a team of lawyers standing by ready to represent them on a purely contingent basis, with no out-of-pocket costs whatsoever."
AT&T initially scoffed at the effort, arguing that arbitrators have no authority to block the merger, and the company urged the American Arbitration Association (AAA) to refuse to administer the cases. AAA overruled AT&T's objection and began administering the cases last week. In an August 2 letter to AAA, AT&T's associate general counsel stated these arbitrations will "place a $39 billion merger in jeopardy." AT&T argued that "because of the industry-wide – and in fact global – implications of the proceedings, the arbitrators will be forced to develop procedures to protect the interests of all of the affected consumers, businesses, and state and federal regulators."
More at the link
http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=272330At this point, it's hard for me to get excited about the possibilility of the merger falling through. There is so much damage to TMO's market position and customer base that even with the 'penalties' AT&T has to pay, it would still take years for TMO to recover to where the were before, and being #3 or #4, in a very competitive market, in this economy, recovering is really hard... I really like my job, and the people I work for, which is something I've never heard anyone from AT&T say (we have a lot of former AT&T network engineers here - NONE of them are happy).
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