US telecoms giant AT&T has abandoned plans to launch a 4G LTE air-to-ground service.
AT&T is walking away from the project just seven months after it announced a partnership with aerospace manufacturer Honeywell to roll out the services in late…
US telecoms giant AT&T has abandoned plans to launch a 4G LTE air-to-ground service.
AT&T is walking away from the project just seven months after it announced a partnership with aerospace manufacturer Honeywell to roll out the services in late 2015.
US in-flight broadband provider Gogo saw its stock jump more than 10% following the AT&T announcement. The telco was cited saying it has decided to focus its capital instead on “transformative investments, such as international and video”.
It is currently in the middle of a US$48.5bn deal to buy US satellite broadcaster DirecTV.
On Friday, AT&T also agreed to acquire Iusacell, Mexico’s third-largest wireless operator, for US$2.5bn in a move that could be the precursor for further M&A in the country, according to New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin.
“Given the investment required to make Iusacell’s network truly competitive, the acquisition wouldn’t make much sense on its own; however, it makes a ton of sense as a precursor to an acquisition of the assets Carlos Slim’s America Movil [AMX] will divest in Mexico,” he said.
“We thought AT&T would buy the AMX assets before; the Iusacell deal makes this even more likely.”
AMX, which controls 70% of the Mexican mobile market and 80% of the fixed-line segment, needs to sell assets to comply with changes to the country’s telecoms laws.
