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I was hoping the Softbank money would help me get better network service with Sprint, and don't see how a leveraged deal for T-Mobile helps me at all...
I doubt the DOJ will allow it. Too anti-competitive. Just like AT&T and T-Mobile. The top three just want their smaller "un-carrier" competitor to go away. Any of the top three (Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint) could buy number four (T-Mobile) and the end result would be roughly the same.
A Sprint and T-Mobile merger also wouldn't help customers' coverage in any meaningful way. Sprint and T-Mobile's own networks both cover similar areas (cities, suburbs, major highways, and little else), so customers of either would gain very little actual new coverage from the other.
Also, Sprint's position as number three could soon be coming to an end--but only if T-Mobile keeps doing what they're doing. I think Sprint (or more accurately, Sprint's Japanese ownership) is afraid of becoming number 4, and this is a ploy to prevent that from happening.
It's a terrible plan, and I hope that the regulators will see it for what it is.
I doubt the DOJ will allow it. Too anti-competitive. Just like AT&T and T-Mobile. The top three just want their smaller "un-carrier" competitor to go away. Any of the top three (Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint) could buy number four (T-Mobile) and the end result would be roughly the same.
Sprint and T-Mobile combined have less subscribers than ATT and Verizon Wirelessly individually. It's not comparable to the ATT & T-Mobile merger at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thegonagle
A Sprint and T-Mobile merger also wouldn't help customers' coverage in any meaningful way. Sprint and T-Mobile's own networks both cover similar areas (cities, suburbs, major highways, and little else), so customers of either would gain very little actual new coverage from the other.
I feel that this statement hugely ignores Sprint's spectrum allocation. Sprint has a tower build-out for a 1900Mhz network but holds Nextel's 800Mhz spectrum which Sprint plans to deploy both, 3g and 4g on. So imagine that little else turning into something similar to the original Nextel network, but much more dense.
Combined with T-Mobile, they will have SMR, AWS, PCS, and BRS/EBS spectrum covering the nation. Sprint has already demonstrated how banding together the spectrum with LTE-TD can achieve unprecedented speeds (available today in several cities). Sprint is the only LTE_TD provider in the US, and Softbank is the largeset in Japan.
I see this being a play of speed rather than coverage. Sprint already has SMR coverage in the works. They don't need T-Mobile for this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thegonagle
Also, Sprint's position as number three could soon be coming to an end--but only if T-Mobile keeps doing what they're doing. I think Sprint (or more accurately, Sprint's Japanese ownership) is afraid of becoming number 4, and this is a ploy to prevent that from happening.
It's a terrible plan, and I hope that the regulators will see it for what it is.
One area where Sprint is always underestimated is their negotiation power for hardware. Softbank combined with Sprint can buy phones in much larger quantity at lower prices. Softbank is also cash rich... and it's cashflow is expected to triple with the Alibaba IPO. At the end of the day, buying power matters.
Sprint has to be extremely careful of how they play this out. They have to immediately scrap one of their 3g technologies (most likely CDMA) in order to plug a hole. Otherwise this could be Sprint-Nextel all over again.
Sprint has to tell me, and make me believe, that they can realize their potential and improve my network.
If they just act distracted with a capital-depleting merger attempt, and I cannot get better coverage, I may take my account to ATT or VZN.
Already started shopping, which I hadn't done seriously in years.
"Industry giants AT&T Inc. T +0.06% and Verizon VZ -0.02% Wireless spend billions more each year on wireless infrastructure than their smaller rivals. AT&T and Verizon each have more contract subscribers and have collected more revenue so far this year than Sprint and T-Mobile combined."
"Industry giants AT&T Inc. T +0.06% and Verizon VZ -0.02% Wireless spend billions more each year on wireless infrastructure than their smaller rivals. AT&T and Verizon each have more contract subscribers and have collected more revenue so far this year than Sprint and T-Mobile combined."
And after a growth spurt, S is hemorrhaging customers. I may be next.
Unfortunately, I just looked up my contract, and it runs to July, 2014.
I will have to find out what the buyout is before I do anything.
And after a growth spurt, S is hemorrhaging customers. I may be next.
Unfortunately, I just looked up my contract, and it runs to July, 2014.
I will have to find out what the buyout is before I do anything.
Mike,
I just ate three Sprint ETFs after over a decade of loyalty. My end date was November 21, 2014 and cost me $220 x 3. I had a company issued Galaxy S4 and MIFI on the Verizon network and had speeds so fast that I refused to connect to any Wifi areas and decided to eat the ETF to move the family. Totally worth it.
The amazing thing is 4g LTE was just getting released in Raleigh for Sprint but still continued to come and go and when it was working it was sub par if ever working at all. Roughly 10mb down and about 3mb up peak which was so choppy it was rare to grab a signal leaving for work to navigate the traffic on 540.
Sprints 3G worked sometimes but took minutes to do simple tasks if they ever completed at all. I ended up sitting in my driveway to borrow wifi to finish simple tasks and navigations before leaving home.
Texts became spotty, some showing some not. I started running into issues where I'd be talking to my wife and suddenly I was dropped into another conversation. Sprint said it was a tower issue.
Calls drop all over raleigh and RTP. My two main areas.
Verizon: consistent 4g LTE running ~17-30mb down and ~20 up. Not wavering. No issues with texts (instant) and no dropped calls. Everything is instant at the touch something my Sprint devices never could do.
IMHO Sprint proved that it cannot effectively integrate an incompatible network. Look at the disaster of the buyout of Nextel that used iDen cellular technology. While Sprint made every effort to integrate all of Nextel's subscribers it was a miserable failure by most standards.
Trying to integrate both CDMA and GSM subscribers to the same technology will not be easy or cheap. To effectively do so, they will have to switch either the current Sprint or T-mobile customers to the same cellular technology. Not an easy proposition and would take several years and a lot of $$$.
IMHO Sprint proved that it cannot effectively integrate an incompatible network. Look at the disaster of the buyout of Nextel that used iDen cellular technology. While Sprint made every effort to integrate all of Nextel's subscribers it was a miserable failure by most standards.
Trying to integrate both CDMA and GSM subscribers to the same technology will not be easy or cheap. To effectively do so, they will have to switch either the current Sprint or T-mobile customers to the same cellular technology. Not an easy proposition and would take several years and a lot of $$$.
There's also an option that was not previously available. A phone can now have both CDMA and GSM antennae in them.
The long term plan, however is for everything to be LTE... something that both Sprint and T-Mobile are currently moving towards.
So the difference between this combination vs the Sprint Nextel combination is that both companies already have a roadmap to the same technology (albeit Sprint's plans being much more advanced LTE).
And after a growth spurt, S is hemorrhaging customers. I may be next.
Unfortunately, I just looked up my contract, and it runs to July, 2014.
I will have to find out what the buyout is before I do anything.
Why wait? If you're not getting the service you want, just pay the ETF and move on.
Sprint around here gets 40mbps-60mbps consistently. Verizon and AT&T are in their teens.
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