AT&T buys T-Mobile for $39 billion, creating America's largest telecom behemoth

Today, AT&T announced it plans to purchase T-Mobile from parent company Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion.

AT&T, which is the second largest wireless company in America and was once of the world's largest companies when it was American Telephone & Telegraph Company, will now be the country's largest. (T-Mobile was the fourth largest.) This new telecom behemoth will be more than 30 percent larger than Verizon Wireless, the now-second largest, and more than twice as big as Sprint, now the third largest.

The deal, which combines cash and stock, will take roughly one year to close, and still requires some regulatory and shareholder approvals.

This is perhaps best news for Apple lovers stuck with T-Mobile, which didn't offer the iPhone.

The move will greatly bolster AT&Ts wireless resources, including its 4G data network, LTE network, and its overal available spectrum space.

However, this deal would shrink the amount of competing companies in the U.S. in the telecom sector—and reducing competition in the oligarch-style telecom industry is seldom good for the average consumer, as Canada knows all too well.