Sprint and T-Mobile Reach Merger Agreement, Plan for 'World's Best' 5G Network

[se1000]

As a current T-Mobile subscriber, and I can't believe I'm saying this, this merger might be a good thing.

1. John Legere has demonstrated during his tenure at T-Mobile that he's good at reshaping the wireless industry, and doing so by bringing customers value add. Eliminating contract plans, eliminating hidden phone subsidy's, and offering reasonable unlimited plans were major shifts in the wireless industry that T-Mobile introduced. Seriously, we were all paying to add TEXT MESSAGING.

2. Combining largely LTE user bases won't nearly be as challenging as it was when it was truly GSM and CDMA. The vast majority, if not just about all Sprint phones sold in the last what 5 ish years can work on the existing T-Mobile LTE network. Obviously, none of us have the exact numbers, but again, this isn't the technical hurdle that it once was.

3. The combined T-Mobile will still a slight underdog to Verizon and AT&T, plenty of encouragement for them to continue pushing the value proposition in the wireless industry.

4. Sprint was a dead company walking - It was hemorrhaging subscribers and had no real long term growth plan. You know it's bad when their commercials say "we're worse, but it's not as bad as you think".

5. This is far more long term, but T-Mobile's ambitions may go beyond just mobile wireless, again, more motivation to tackle things beyond just challenging ATT/Verizon.

Oh, and current Sprint customers can finally stop using their WAP browsers. I KID I KID

 

[bobmepp]

Never going to happen.

The thing most people don't realize is what T-Mobile and Sprint are in this country.

90% of Americans living close to or below the poverty level use T-Mobile, Sprint, or one of their MVNO carriers that operate on their network. The two carriers and their MVNOs make up 14 of the top 18 MVNO carriers, all which would be at risk if the two merged.

If the carriers were to merge, it could potentially turn 14 carriers into one. So those who say it doesn't eliminate competition don't understand the reality of the situation.

It can't happen. If it does, it'll be the end of wireless competitive pricing in America as we know it. Every time carriers try to merge, they promise jobs, more competition, and better coverage. My question to TMO is this, what happened to their last several times they came promising coverage to Rural America? It's complete garbage when a wireless company's CEO comes on and begs for public support by promising bringing rural coverage to America. It hasn't happened in 25 years of promises and 25 years of mergers. It's not going to happen now.

Want to see choice, competition, and technological progress end in America? Support this merger.
[doublepost=1525025572][/doublepost]


I guess a sucker is born every day. Every merger in US history has been sold by CEOs saying expedited technology adoption and rural coverage will happen if the merger is approved. If you buy into this then I have some beachfront property in Idaho to sell you. This has been the sell every time. And has never happened in the history of US wireless carrier mergers.

Poor customers indeed use TMobile & Sprint, but they also use ATT & Verizon - I have never noticed predominately poor customers in the stores of any of them. The bottom line is that poor people have no choice but to own a cell phone, just like they have no choice but to buy cars with sub-prime financing. Their unavoidable needs lead to their being exploited.

But that aside, in the last year, my rural TMobile service has deteriorated to the point where speeds are about 1/2 of what they were when I first signed up, and I am getting "no service" about 3x/day per device (2 iPhones & 1 iPad), i.e. 270 disconnects per month. (This only happens when at home connected to the tower about 5 miles away. Fixed usually by turning airplane mode on and then off). Customer service suggests updating to latest iOS - had already done it - didn't help. I guess they have decided to prepare me early for the merger. Update: I have been disconnected twice in the course of writing this brief post. 2nd Update: Two more disconnects while editing this post - TMobile is on a roll today!

 

[sirozha]

You keep talking about coverage in rural America, and the history of broken promises. Well, I live in a *very* rural area in the northern Rockies, and I've had excellent Verizon coverage for *years*, and a couple of years ago AT&T caught up. It's T-mobile and Sprint that have never built out their coverage to include us rural folks, although I agree that this merger, if it happens, won't change that. Limiting their coverage to urban centers is exactly why T-mobile has been able to put up the numbers they have the last several years.

I never travel to your area, but I have excellent coverage where I live, where I travel regularly in the US and free roaming with voice and data in Canada with the full LTE bandwidth on T-Mobile. I think T-Mobile is amazing, and I’m not a poor person. Neither Verizon nor AT&T can provide this level of service to me.

When I do go to the mountains, I buy a prepaid Verizon SIM and put it in my old iPhone as a backup. However, when I go to Canada, I have free roaming everywhere with T-Mobile, and I can choose the mobile carrier of my choice. It works amazing in Canada. I save hundreds of dollars during every trip to Canada being in T-Mobile vs being on AT&T or Verizon.

 

[tooloud10]

It can't happen. If it does, it'll be the end of wireless competitive pricing in America as we know it. Every time carriers try to merge, they promise jobs, more competition, and better coverage. My question to TMO is this, what happened to their last several times they came promising coverage to Rural America? It's complete garbage when a wireless company's CEO comes on and begs for public support by promising bringing rural coverage to America. It hasn't happened in 25 years of promises and 25 years of mergers. It's not going to happen now.

Um, actually it has happened here in the rural midwest. T-Mo coverage was nonexistent here a few years ago and it's actually usable now.

 

[bobmepp]

Ha! Lower prices and job creation? Riiight....becuase mergers never result in job redundencies and “efficiencies” and reducing competition always means lower prices!

In all seriousness, this may be good overall, but why do these CEOs need to spew false garbage about job creation? It is just insulting.

Indeed, no CEO has ever created a job, ever. Jobs are created by markets.

 

[technole]

I read the investor slides, the plan is to migrate Sprint users to the T-Mobile network within 3-years, add Sprint's 2.5Ghz spectrum to current T-Mobile towers. Some Sprint towers will be net-adds to T-Mobile spectrum where appropriate. Or decommission ones no longer needed.

A sizable amount of customers have phones that work on T-Mobile bands already.

Basically Sprint will be dismantled.

 

[ghanwani]

A merger like this is never good for consumers or employees.

No, thousands of jobs won't be created. They will be eliminated as redundant functions in HR, engineering, finance, etc. are "right sized."

Consumers will be left with one less choice.

The only folks that benefit are the execs and the shareholders. I am sure both of the folks in this video will be making out like bandits as a result of the merger.

https://www.thenation.com/article/america-has-a-monopoly-problem-and-its-huge/

 

[freeskier93]

But that’s the exact problem that’s going to exacerbated by this merger.

Instead of simple, honest plans that say "22 GB" at full speed and throttled to 128kbps after that, they call everything "unlimited" and bury the throttling and zero-rating in the fine print.

And now there will be one less competitor. Seems like things are just going to keep getting worse as everyone cheers on the expansion of a company running dishonest marketing shrouding limits and caps behind an "unlimited" moniker.

You aren't throttled, you're deprioritized.

 

[steve333]

5G, a cell tower on every block.
Disaster

 

[tooloud10]

I don’t understand this. There seems to be millions of ppl willing to shell out $40-$50 a month to finance a phone for the rest of their life. That to me is crazy.

You make it sound like that's a bad thing. I'm not 'financing' a phone so much as I'm accepting a zero interest payment plan from my cell provider. It's actually not that different from the way it worked for several decades when the phones were actually subsidized by the providers.

 

[Xgm541]

t-mobile isn't even a mobile company. Its a bottom feeder finance company trying to sell financing on everything in sight to whatever fool happens to walk in their store.

Wat

I don’t understand this. There seems to be millions of ppl willing to shell out $40-$50 a month to finance a phone for the rest of their life. That to me is crazy.

What's wrong with financing a phone?

 

[4jasontv]

CenturyLink bought Level 3.

That explains why they were to busy to replace my 20 year old DSLAM with something that can handle more than 3 mbps.

 

[technole]

Leasing/Financing a phone is one of the better options today instead of paying an high cost subsidized bill for a phone and plan. Basically the carrier made out like bandits when you kept your old phone longer.

Now you have clarity on when your phone is "paid off" so you can just pay for a plan instead. Plus there are programs like iPhones for Life now that are a result of such, so you can just trade-up every year. Just like a leased car.

 

[4jasontv]

I guess for the people upgrading after two years, it doesn’t really help them. For those of us that upgrade every year, it is totally worth it.

Nope. Payments add up to full price. Since there is no interest on the devices you pay less than full price once you account for inflation. Even if you upgrade every two years it’s worth it.
[doublepost=1525052867][/doublepost]

Take a look at Canada. 3 companies; Bell, Rogers and Telus. Poor reception, measly limited plans and the highest prices in all developed countries.

Don't get too excited.

Isn’t Canada even harder than the US to deploy a network. More trees, more hills, and a more distributed smaller population?

 

[tooloud10]

Soooo we’re all happy here that competition is disappearing in an industry that regularly calls 22-50 GB plans "unlimited?"

They don't shut your data off at 22-50GB of usage.

 

[ghanwani]

You aren't throttled, you're deprioritized.

Which is better?

IMO throttled is better. At least there's a minimum guarantee and the bandwidth is steady so apps (including video) can adapt to the lower bandwith.

Deprioritized means apps cannot adjust because available bandwidth fluctuates widely. This could result in connection resets and video freezing providing a poorer quality of experience.

 

[Kabeyun]

Never going to happen.

The thing most people don't realize is what T-Mobile and Sprint are in this country.

90% of Americans living close to or below the poverty level use T-Mobile, Sprint, or one of their MVNO carriers that operate on their network. The two carriers and their MVNOs make up 14 of the top 18 MVNO carriers, all which would be at risk if the two merged.

If the carriers were to merge, it could potentially turn 14 carriers into one. So those who say it doesn't eliminate competition don't understand the reality of the situation.

It can't happen. If it does, it'll be the end of wireless competitive pricing in America as we know it. Every time carriers try to merge, they promise jobs, more competition, and better coverage. My question to TMO is this, what happened to their last several times they came promising coverage to Rural America? It's complete garbage when a wireless company's CEO comes on and begs for public support by promising bringing rural coverage to America. It hasn't happened in 25 years of promises and 25 years of mergers. It's not going to happen now.

Want to see choice, competition, and technological progress end in America? Support this merger.
[doublepost=1525025572][/doublepost]


I guess a sucker is born every day. Every merger in US history has been sold by CEOs saying expedited technology adoption and rural coverage will happen if the merger is approved. If you buy into this then I have some beachfront property in Idaho to sell you. This has been the sell every time. And has never happened in the history of US wireless carrier mergers.

I think a lot of people realize what Sprint is in this country: dying. They’re going away. If TMob doesn’t get them now, someone else will later, and when they’re worth less. I’m not sure I follow how all of the top 18 MVNOs would be “at risk” if TMob gets them. Maybe higher prices, maybe more uniform features. Maybe there’d be less competition among MVNOs but I don’t see how they vanish if TMob acquires their backbone. A few might, but these are separate companies and their customers would still need them to buy wholesale wireless service from someone. Btw, Wikipedia lists 82 voice & data service operators, only 32 (39%) of which have Sprint or TMob as exclusive hosts, and several of which already use both anyway. (And as for the low income set, Walmart Family Mobile is already TMob.) Maybe this merger wouldn’t be as apocalyptic as you say.

I do agree that all that corporate lip service won’t magically yield better coverage for us rural customers. Smaller fry players like TMob scoop up customers in population centers where smaller investments produce bigger subscriber gains. They’ve always been metrocentric and pretty disinterested in expanding true infrastructure.

 

[Drag'nGT]

We can thank them for killing long term contracts, and the more liberal cell policies today.

They didn't kill long term contracts, they simply reversed the structure and placed the financial burden on the consumer. You now pay $1,000 for a phone you used to pay $200-300 for with contract. You had an ETF if you break that contract but the ETF was to cover the phone discount you inherently received when signing the contract. The vast majority of AT&T and VZWs customers are long term, repeat subscribers. The days of bouncing from carrier to carrier are over. Knowing this, the companies realized that people wanted the latest smartphone and they (AT&T/VZW/T-Mo/Sprint) no longer had to subsidize a phone to get people to use their service.

 

[dogslobber]

Less competition = higher prices. Consolidation = reduced investment. This is as good as the cellular networks gets.
[doublepost=1525055915][/doublepost]

Thank god!
Instead of 2 tiny carriers (T-Mobile and Sprint) trying to go up against 2 behemoth carriers (ATT and Verizon), we now get 3 large carriers; ATT, Verizon and T-Sprint battling each other in a 3-way race, while US Cellular gets bumped up the list to take the place of what Sprint/T-Mobile was before.

Collusion is easier when you have less players. It creates an unofficial cartel in all but name.

 

[sirozha]

Take a look at Canada. 3 companies; Bell, Rogers and Telus. Poor reception, measly limited plans and the highest prices in all developed countries.

Don't get too excited.

Poor reception? Canada has amazing coverage in the most rural areas where very few people live. Every time I travel to Canada I’m amazed at how much better coverage there is than it is in the US.

 

[dogslobber]

Time will tell whether this will or will not benefit current customers or attract new customers. If this merger does create better service with competitive prices, then this will benefit everyone and with the option to leave Verizon or ATT. I find it difficult to believe the merger will create new jobs as mergers tend to eliminate duplicate positions.

Mergers never create jobs. It's a fallacy to believe such.
[doublepost=1525056206][/doublepost]

Poor reception? Canada has amazing coverage in the most rural areas where very few people live. Every time I travel to Canada I’m amazed at how much better coverage there is than it is in the US.

I got great ATT coverage in some of the major border cities of Canada to the USA so if that's what you mean by amazing coverage then I agree

 

[redfirebird08]

I read the investor slides, the plan is to migrate Sprint users to the T-Mobile network within 3-years, add Sprint's 2.5Ghz spectrum to current T-Mobile towers. Some Sprint towers will be net-adds to T-Mobile spectrum where appropriate. Or decommission ones no longer needed.

A sizable amount of customers have phones that work on T-Mobile bands already.

Basically Sprint will be dismantled.

So pretty much status quo for Sprint customers over the next 3 years?

 

[SDColorado]

My wife and I just switched back to T-Mobile today from Verizon. It had nothing to do with the merger news. Primarily it was a result of the fact that hitting the age of 55 this year, the T-Mobile ONE Unlimited 55+ plan just made sense for my wife and I and saved is a fair amount over even the shared 8GB plan we had with Verison at $70 a month for two lines. T-Mobile has some good value plans for Veterans and Veteran owned businesses as well, but we only needed the 2 lines.

We went from AT&T for about 8 years to T-Mobile, got sucked into the Verizon is better hype for a couple of years and realized it wasn't, and switched back.

Happy for the merger news. Sprint was going to go away in one form or another regardless. Either bankrupt or absorbed by one of the other 3, just as well it is T-Mobile rather than AT&T or Verizon. AT&T was the result of buying Cingular who was formed formed from a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth. Lets not forget that AT&T also announced its intention to acquire T-Mobile and from Deutsche Telekom back in 2011. It is good that T-Mobile wasn't absorbed then and has the chance to merge with Sprint and be more competative with the 2 goliaths imho.

 

[BorderingOn]

Sprint has sold off nearly all it's real assets. Not much left of them anymore. It's all Verizon, Centurylink, AT&T, and then the Level3s of the world.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...s-to-buy-level-3-for-34-billion-in-cash-stock

so even less

 

[redfirebird08]

My wife and I just switched back to T-Mobile today from Verizon. It had nothing to do with the merger news. Primarily it was a result of the fact that hitting the age of 55 this year, the T-Mobile ONE Unlimited 55+ plan just made sense for my wife and I and saved is a fair amount over even the shared 8GB plan we had with Verison at $70 a month for two lines. T-Mobile has some good value plans for Veterans and Veteran owned businesses as well, but we only needed the 2 lines.

We went from AT&T for about 8 years to T-Mobile, got sucked into the Verizon is better hype for a couple of years and realized it wasn't, and switched back.

Happy for the merger news. Sprint was going to go away in one form or another regardless. Either bankrupt or absorbed by one of the other 3, just as well it is T-Mobile rather than AT&T or Verizon. AT&T was the result of buying Cingular who was formed formed from a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth. Lets not forget that AT&T also announced its intention to acquire T-Mobile and from Deutsche Telekom back in 2011. It is good that T-Mobile wasn't absorbed then and has the chance to merge with Sprint and be more competative with the 2 goliaths imho.

The sad thing about Sprint is they own all that good spectrum which could be used for 5G upgrades. They are simply in a terrible spot with their credit lines, cash flow, etc. They are pretty much a zombie company. Dead man walking so to speak.

T-Mobile is essentially buying that spectrum for 5G upgrades and they giving themselves the inside track with Sprint's customer base. If Sprint went bankrupt, it would be a free for all between the other three to gobble up the customers and spectrum.