TTA Archives 2005-2012

If the announced acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T, to create the largest mobile company in the US, does go through (regulatory approval may take a year), what is the impact on mobile health development? At first glance, not much to look at, because all the action’s with AT&T. Starting last fall, AT&T moved aggressively to build the ForHealth initiative and acquire partners such as MedApps, WellDoc, Vitality GlowCaps and Cardionet. In contrast, T-Mobile had a ‘support’ model that could best be described as minimalist and home health/RPM oriented, which doesn’t take a lot of innovation or bandwidth. (Ed. Donna, among others, noticed this distinct lack of zip at last October’s Mobile Health Expo’s opening keynote, where Scott Ellis was the appetizer for the chops that AT&T and Sprint’s presenters threw on the grill.) Mobihealthnews covers the T-Mobile history (or lack thereof) in exhaustive detail…and deduces that it’s a solution for AT&T’s notable network capacity problems (especially moving to 4G) and with the Deutsche Telekom investment, an entree into Europe. Engadget has the ‘inside baseball’ scoop on this GSM monopoly plus a must-see visual that says it all. Tuesday’s latest (antitrust implications) from The Wall Street Journal.