AT&T goes pan American, closing its $2.5 billion Iusacell deal

AT&T announced it has finalized its $2.5 billion acquisition of Mexico's lusacell from Gurpo Salinas, making AT&T now officially the first North American mobile carrier to run networks on both sides of Rio Grande.

The deal doesn’t bring that many new subscribers to its network -- Iusacell’s 9.2 million subscribers puts it in a distant third place to Mexican wireless giant América Móvil -- but it gains access to a GSM and CDMA network covering 120 million people. AT&T is promising to create a unified network covering 400 million people in North America, though some doubt that will mean the in-network coverage on a standard AT&T plan will suddenly extend to Mexico City and Oaxaca. Chances are AT&T will start marketing specific plans for frequent cross-border travelers in both countries as well as sell calling features that make it cheap or free to call Mexican landlines and mobile numbers from the US and vice versa. AT&T has also committed to bring LTE services to Mexico.