Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sprint and T-Mobile Merger Back on the Table as SoftBank Agrees to Cede Control of Sprint
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE t-mo BUY sprint. I don't have either, been on ATT for ever and love it. But I did buy a bunch of sprint stock about 5 years ago just for fun when it was $2.30/share. PLEASE t-mo offer up $12/share. That would net me about 40 15" macbook pro's.
PLEASE
PLEASE
On my iPhone 6, I'd agree with the people
Hollering about T-Mo's bad coverage. However, if you've used their network with a iPhone 6S or later device, the difference is remarkable thanks to band 12. I went from having coverage only in my city's metro area to having LTE coverage in the entire state.
If you haven't tried their network with a band 12 compatible device, then you may be missing out. It's not going to magically cover those sparse rural areas out west, but it does an excellent job of filling in those dead zones between major cities.
Hollering about T-Mo's bad coverage. However, if you've used their network with a iPhone 6S or later device, the difference is remarkable thanks to band 12. I went from having coverage only in my city's metro area to having LTE coverage in the entire state.
If you haven't tried their network with a band 12 compatible device, then you may be missing out. It's not going to magically cover those sparse rural areas out west, but it does an excellent job of filling in those dead zones between major cities.
Just don't travel through New Hampshire from the lakes region north if you want to make a call
.
Exactly. Imagine the prices everyone will be paying if ATT was allowed to swallow up TMo just a few years back. TMo took that money ATT had to fork over and shook up the market with it.
This is really the kind of competition that we need. There's little point to wasting resources on putting up the same towers over and over again for each network.
They would have to phase out the CDMA service and then repurpose the spectrum to build a very strong LTE or future network, would take years but the end result should be a significant improvement for everyone involved.
g\
Just to chime in, T-Mobile has the best coverage and speeds, second only to Verizon. In fact, all the research is usually posted here on the front page. I have T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T and constantly travel the US, T-Mobile is by far the better service.
T-Mobile purchasing Sprint is good for the industry. Sprint is a horrible network and they don't have the money to invest on upgrading it or purchasing more spectrum while subscriptions continue to decline.
Plus, no other company is really going to want them outside of telecom.
T-Mobile purchasing Sprint is good for the industry. Sprint is a horrible network and they don't have the money to invest on upgrading it or purchasing more spectrum while subscriptions continue to decline.
Plus, no other company is really going to want them outside of telecom.
it will allow T-Mobile to own sprints bands of LTE and be able to use them on there towers.a simple firmware update to the modem will allow most new phones to work.heck 99% of Android phones in the USA are using all the same soc and same exact modems from Qualcomm.
if TMobile and Verizon merged you would have the best of both worlds and have CDMA and GSM and every new new LTE band in-between.
T-Mobile would also get all of sprints towers and have them broadcast there bands and improve coverage that way.
T-Mobile buying sprint will only make T-Mobile better.
I'm a T-Mobile customer planning on switching to Verizon when the new iPhone comes out. If T-Mobile improves their coverage before then I would happily stay with them. Their price is great. Their coverage sucks dick unless you're in a major city like LA (I live an hour outside of LA).
I was with AT&T (and Cingular) for over 10 years but T-Mobile's marketing got me. I've been with T-Mobile for 5 or 6 months and I'm sick of not being able to use my phone without wifi. Now I don't care how much money my bill costs as long as I can actually use my phone.
Verizon isn't worth dick at my shop, and AT&T is worthless at my house. T-Mobile works at both.
Since I've switched in 2013 the network has continued to dramatically improve. Especially along the NJ, NY and PA areas I travel. It's been very good in the couple of trips I've taken to the middle of the country. And that was before I had a 700 MHz capable phone. Is the coverage as deep as VZ? Obviously not. But I'll never agree with anyone who just casually throws out the word "garbage" because of my personal experiences with it. Where they have coverage is great. It's just they have a great network in slightly less places than VZ or ATT. Garbage would be slow data or dropped calls in ares where they have said coverage. I've just never experienced that.
You can't just throw up towers and use spectrum you don't have. Low-band spectrum is a priority and they're doing all they can to acquire it. They have no choice to with all the braggadocio from Legere and their marketing. From where they were pre-Legere to now, it's been a pretty impressive jump.
Just going by the maps that everyone uses (accurate or not) here's where they are and where they are (supposedly) going. And with their track record with network expansion, I believe them.
You can't just throw up towers and use spectrum you don't have. Low-band spectrum is a priority and they're doing all they can to acquire it. They have no choice to with all the braggadocio from Legere and their marketing. From where they were pre-Legere to now, it's been a pretty impressive jump.
Just going by the maps that everyone uses (accurate or not) here's where they are and where they are (supposedly) going. And with their track record with network expansion, I believe them.
Last edited:
They all need to be broken up into smaller pieces. There needs to be a minimum 10-20 carriers in the US, with forced interoperability requirements, for actual competition and real free market capitalism. This is econ 101 stuff. Until we have this we will continue to pay 5x what regions of the world with real competition pay.
SAY NO TO OLIGOPOLY!!
SAY NO TO OLIGOPOLY!!
In the right areas, they're excellent networks. They just have a lot of patchy (T-Mobile) areas or awful (Spring) areas. If this merger happens, I may well be able to switch to T-mobile. Sprint is the only reliable carrier in my corner of Silicon Valley. Believe it or not, it's actually far better than Verizon.
Now, go a half mile down the street in any direction and the picture changes.
No room for alternative facts here... Verizon was the LAST to bring back unlimited data plans. I've had unlimited with Sprint since I started my service back in January of 2013. T-Mobile has had them, and AT&T started again last year, even if it was in conjunction with a DirecTV account. The only thing Verizon spurred was more data for hotspot use, as I switched my unlimited plan with Sprint last month, and it already included 5GB.
Sprint has a giant perception problem. Their network is not as bad as some here say. Might as well get integrated into T-Mobile
The thing to remember, though, is Sprint has not been at the forefront of any of these innovations. Their network is relatively the same as what it was before, there of been no innovations in terms of pricing or anything else. The real innovator has always been T-Mobile. I'm with Sprint right now, and we are actively considering T-Mobile for our next provider. This merger could be something kind of awesome!
[doublepost=1487423184][/doublepost]
What you're saying is technically true, however the iPhones not including the iPhone 7 had the antenna for every service provider baked into the chips that were included in the phones. It's not out of the realm of possibility that this could be done again. This way they could take advantage of all the networks benefits and decrease the weak points.
I was a customer, I tried for 3 months 5 phone family plan. Im in mid-western Mass and 3-4 times a day i would loose coverage. HORRIBLE! I switched to Cricket (ATT network) and haven't looked back. Tomorrow goes to 3 GIGs data per user and throttles like mobile after gone. Unlimited talk and text on all... NOT shared data!. How could i go wrong. Heres the best thing.. 5 phones $100 a month period.. not taxes etc.. Only drawbacks is i need to bring my own phone or buy one outright.. oh well. I can buy a new phone or two every year for the money difference that i would pay on the other carriers. Remember.. this is ATT network.. I do not lose signal anywhere now. Unless T-mobile can beat this and get coverage everywhere i need, no thanks. YES to the Sprint acquisition.. its a great idea.. NO less than 3 big companies tho.. Remember how T-mobile shook up the industry.. Keep it up.. all 3 big ones now offer unlimited again and for better prices.. Thanks T... but not for me... (yet)
It'll be interesting to see whether the move by T-Mobile to buy out/merge with sprint will involve killing off the CDMA2000 network in favour of moving to the cheaper and easier to deploy WCDMA/GSM and LTE - the 600Mhz that T-Mobile bought would be a huge benefit if you go VoLTE and the higher frequencies for capacity and data when required; cosy up to Huawei for your equipment supplier and they're more than happy to provide a generous line of credit if it means standardising on a GSM/LTE/WCDMA SingleRAN network to replace the mess that exists today.
More like filling up coverage holes. If it wasn't worth anything, there wouldn't be any interest in buying it, don't you think?
[doublepost=1487427040][/doublepost]
In the meantime try using WiFi calling when signal is low.