Unless you live in high density population centers these companies are garbage... 5G... try 1G or less in the rural areas at best. Hell, I'd settle for 3G if I could get it. Even in my neighborhood that is seven miles from downtown I can't get a strong signal with Verizon.
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Department of Justice Approves $26B Merger of T-Mobile and Sprint
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eSIM is mandatory for the new company--the 11R should be eSIM ONLY, for space-savings, water resistance, simpler construction, and as an experiment.
You'd lose that bet massively. 3 years ago we were paying for data buckets for more than unlimited costs today.
Can someone enlighten me as to why Dish decided to join the cell phone industry? Is it because DirectTV is now a part of ATT that Dish needed to similarly have spectrum too?
Competition is good for everyone and if this makes T-Mobile more competitive against ATT and VZN I'm all for it. I've wanted to go to T-Mobile for quite some time now, I have always enjoyed John Legere but I've also enjoyed VZN's reliability.
Agreed, either I have good download speed’s or I have no download speed. I just want good 4G coverage in more places. Sadly, I think 5G is regressing to a similar transition between 3G and 4G . You will have amazing download speeds in some places while still having 4G speeds in most places for many years until 5G can be built out.
Another happy exile from ATT to T mobile. Coverage is about the same, fast unlimited internet in NYC to the point I cancelled my cable, and great international data / roaming. With ATT I was always paying a lot of extras when traveling and I travel a lot.
Correct me - but are you not positioning Verizon as this bastion - perhaps overpriced but providing the coverage and service necessary for the needy cellular consumer... Wouldn’t T-mobile becoming Verizon be a good thing? This is what T-mobile get criticized for does it not? That’s the argument Verizon users make - you have to pay for service. T-Mobile is cheap because they’re cut rate.
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Good. Sprint was never competition for anyone anyway. Including T-Mobile. Sprint would have died off in a few years anyway. This will at least let T-Mobile have a bigger stick to battle AT&T/Verizon with.
I’d win because my bill was cheaper. My phone cost 499 vs 999 for the same level in the pricing structure. I call that 50% less. My phone bill was unlimited data (with no caps) and a large employer discount. Was paying 30% less. Win-Win-Win( Michael Scott conflict resolution).
I am a Verizon -> T-Mobile convert. For 4 lines + 3 device payments we were paying over $300/month on Verizon. Thanks to TMo's getoutofthered program, they paid off all our devices and we dropped to $180/month. If you figure in the $30/month we were paying per device with Verizon, our bill was still ~$20/month more and that was for 8 gigs of shared data. We now have unlimited with TMo for that 180/month. It was worth it for us. Coverage has been really good too. Add to that TMo pays my MLB.TV subscription each year and they pay our Netflix and it's been great.
Well, T-Mobile haven't really raised the prices, but new customers (or existing ones switching to new plans) are getting less than those grandfathered into Simple Choice or One. For example, I have One with One Plus Promo as well as KickBack (get $10 back if you use less than 2 GB per month), new folks signing up or switching will not be able to get that, I will also lose that if I switch over to Magenta Plan. The only advantage of new Magenta plans is 3 GB of HotSpot Data on an entry-level one.
The good thing is that T-Mobile is honoring all grandfathered plans and not forcing anyone on them to switch (for now). As far me, I will stick to my One Plus Promo for as long as I can.
Lol what? AT&T had around 100M wireless customers in 2010, T-Mobile is at 82M. They'd be the same size as AT&T was 3 years from now with or without the merger.
Finally, someone who’s not talking about who’s got the best coverage but looks at the business deal.
Yes, I have the same question/concern because if Sprint could not do it, i don’t know how Dish can. Investing in the infrastructure requires a huge amount of money. Won’t happen with Dish, I think. They may remain a MVNO.
I was hoping Apple would join the fray. After all, once they own the device (iPhone), the chip (5G), the infrastructure is next. I would love to have Internet through 5G network at a decent price so I can say goodbye to Comcast. If you add your internet cost and your cellular cost, a “decent price” is probably in the $50/month per person for a family of 3.
In Oligopoly, AT&T and Verizon WANTED this merger because less competition will allow them all to raise prices together now.
How can so many of you not understand this simple stuff?
My goodness Americans get the government they deserve.
Horrible decision.
It's going to take Dish Network a decade, if they're lucky, to build out their own network. Besides, where are they going to get all the money from to do it? Their revenue and net income has been on the decline for a few years now due to massive cord cutting.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cord-cutting-clips-dish-networks-profit-11556911471
Dish Network Corp.’s first-quarter profit fell 7.6% as its satellite-TV customer base continued to shrink, adding pressure on the telecom company to find new income sources.
The company lost 266,000 satellite customers during the three months that ended March 31, while internet-based Sling TV added 7,000 customers, its smallest-ever quarterly gain. Dish ended the period with 12.1 million pay-TV subscribers.
“It’s still a declining business,” Executive Chairman Charlie Ergen said during a conference call.
Dish’s first-quarter profit totaled $339.8 million, or 65 cents a share, down from $367.6 million, or 70 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 7.8% to $3.19 billion.
Dish needs to build out their 5G network that covers at least 20% of U.S. population by 2020, and 70% by 2023. If they don't, there's a $2.2 billion fine.
From what I've read, it will cost Dish at least $10 billion to build out their network to have 50,000 cell sites (the same # as what Sprint has today). It will cost them billions more (close to $25 billion) if they want to be able to compete with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile/Sprint.
As of the end of March 2019, Dish had $1,577 million of cash on hand and $15.93 Billion in debt.
Buying Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile customers, spectrum, and other debt + assets from T-Mobile/Sprint will cost Dish $5 billion.
I'd also like to point out that these Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile customers are pre-paid customers. These are the least desirable customers because they're the least loyal (high churn rate) and least profitable.
A 4th carrier made up of Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile customers will be weaker than a standalone Sprint. By approving this merger, the DoJ is setting up Dish Network for failure because Dish will be buying Sprint and T-Mobile's weakest and least desirable assets. The DoJ is actually doing T-Mobile/Sprint a favor by getting Dish to buy up their garbage.
Think about it... if Sprint was barely able to survive on their own, how is Dish going to survive and be profitable with less subscribers than what Sprint has now all the while spending billions they don't have to build out their own network from scratch?
It's going to take Dish Network a decade, if they're lucky, to build out their own network. Besides, where are they going to get all the money from to do it? Their revenue and net income has been on the decline for a few years now due to massive cord cutting.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cord-cutting-clips-dish-networks-profit-11556911471
Dish Network Corp.’s first-quarter profit fell 7.6% as its satellite-TV customer base continued to shrink, adding pressure on the telecom company to find new income sources.
The company lost 266,000 satellite customers during the three months that ended March 31, while internet-based Sling TV added 7,000 customers, its smallest-ever quarterly gain. Dish ended the period with 12.1 million pay-TV subscribers.
“It’s still a declining business,” Executive Chairman Charlie Ergen said during a conference call.
Dish’s first-quarter profit totaled $339.8 million, or 65 cents a share, down from $367.6 million, or 70 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 7.8% to $3.19 billion.
Dish needs to build out their 5G network that covers at least 20% of U.S. population by 2020, and 70% by 2023. If they don't, there's a $2.2 billion fine.
From what I've read, it will cost Dish at least $10 billion to build out their network to have 50,000 cell sites (the same # as what Sprint has today). It will cost them billions more (close to $25 billion) if they want to be able to compete with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile/Sprint.
As of the end of March 2019, Dish had $1,577 million of cash on hand and $15.93 Billion in debt.
Buying Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile customers, spectrum, and other debt + assets from T-Mobile/Sprint will cost Dish $5 billion.
I'd also like to point out that these Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile customers are pre-paid customers. These are the least desirable customers because they're the least loyal (high churn rate) and least profitable.
A 4th carrier made up of Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile customers will be weaker than a standalone Sprint. By approving this merger, the DoJ is setting up Dish Network for failure because Dish will be buying Sprint and T-Mobile's weakest and least desirable assets. The DoJ is actually doing T-Mobile/Sprint a favor by getting Dish to buy up their garbage.
Think about it... if Sprint was barely able to survive on their own, how is Dish going to survive and be profitable with less subscribers than what Sprint has now all the while spending billions they don't have to build out their own network from scratch?
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T-Mobile hasn't had any problem competing with Verizon and AT&T. They've been growing their subscriber number at a much faster rate than Verizon and AT&T.
Look at their earnings report from yesterday.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/PR-CO-20190725-914546
T-Mobile Sets More Records in Q2: Strongest Q2 Customer Growth in Years, Record-Low Churn and Record Financial Results
Accelerated Customer Growth
> 1.8 million total net additions in Q2 2019, up 11% YoY
> 1.1 million branded postpaid net additions in Q2 2019, up 9% YoY, expected to be best in the industry
> 710,000 branded postpaid phone net additions in Q2 2019, up 3% YoY, expected to be best in the industry
> 131,000 branded prepaid net additions in Q2 2019, up 44% YoY
> All-time record-low branded postpaid phone churn of 0.78% in Q2 2019, down 17 bps YoY
Continued Strong Outlook for 2019
> Branded postpaid net additions of 3.5 to 4.0 million, up from prior guidance of 3.1 to 3.7 million
Dish has been buying up wireless spectrum for the past decade. Dish needs to put that spectrum to use by March 2020 to be able to keep it. If they don't, it goes up for sale and Dish gets nothing in return.
Why was Dish buying wireless spectrum to begin with? I have no idea. Some believe Dish wanted to flip it for a profit since their tv business has been on the decline. I think they spent $15 billion to buy it, but it's supposedly worth up to $30 billion today. That would be a nice cash infusion for their declining business.
