AT&T Mobility Acquires Dobson Communications

AT&T Mobility announced the acquisition of Dobson Communications this past Monday for $2.8 billion. We believe this is an excellent deal- and would not be surprised to see further acquisitions by AT&T or TMobile as they attempt to buyout their roaming partners and expand their coverage through acquisition not through new site development. Dobson primarily uses GSM technology which is what AT&T uses as well. Dobson’s coverage is primarily in rural and suburban smaller markets nationwide. Allegedly, there isn’t much overlap in coverage. Dobson markets under the name of Cellular One.

As Dobson’s towers were acquired by Global Tower Partners in 2005, we suspect that the Dobson landowners won’t be contacted by Blackdot Wireless or Md7 to renegotiate their lease agreements downwards because of “duplication”. That doesn’t mean that landowners with AT&T cell phone tower leases won’t be contacted with a new pitch.