I checked and they are planning on merging and would this mean the end of the no contract thing and once again...Higher prices ? This whole monopoly has to stop. Less competition would be a disaster for iPhone users.
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Sprint to merge with T-mobile >:( ? VERY BAD
- Thread starter DBZmusicboy01
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This seems absurd on its face. Tmo is a GSM network, and Sprint is a CDMA network. How the heck are they going to integrate this? It's going to be a mess.
Nothing has been announced. We won't know anything until an announcement is made. Then the Feds have to approve it. For now it's just rumors and the SoftBank guy saying he thinks the US should have just three carriers.
T-Mobile bought Metro PCS who used to be all CDMA.
Now you can easily pop in sim card and use Iphone's on it.
First off, if you understand that this has absolutely nothing to do with customer satisfaction and EVERYTHING to do with profit margin for the stockholder, then it might be easier to understand.
What T-Mobile has isn't it's tech, it's towers or it's uncarrier strategy. What Masayoshi Son wants is two things.
1. T-Mobile's wireless spectrum holdings
2. T-Mobile's subs
T-Mobile has plenty of lower spectrum wireless frequencies. Lower frequency penetrates buildings better and goes farther. Sprint's got two thirds of it's Spark offering in 1900mhz and 2.5Ghz. T-Mobile is down there around 600 and 800 mhz. Sprint's standard LTE is Band 25 which is 1900mhz.
More subs equals more profit.
One final point. Everyone is seeing this as Sprint taking over T-Mobile. That's true in the literal sense. But if you look a little deeper you might see a few things.
Masayoshi Son owns Softbank and Softbank owns 80% of Sprint. So, while "Sprint" may be "merging" with T-Mobile it's not "Sprint" that's going to be calling the shots. Son, through Softbank will be running things.
Next, Dan Hesse has already publicly declared that he's ok with NOT being in charge of a combined T-Mobile/Sprint. Does that suggest to you that Dan Hesse will be running things?
And lastly, it has ALSO been mentioned (publicly) that John Legere would be the most likely candidate to run things if a merger happened. Legere is already speaking as if he would be running the place.
Take a look. Personally, I think T-Mobile's management style is more in line with the management style of Masayoshi Son. If this merger gets past the Feds then do not be surprised if you find that Sprint "owns" T-Mobile on paper, but the reality is that Sprint is the one being swallowed by T-Mobile.
Son is dealing with a backwards, entrenched and highly resistant to change culture at Sprint. What better way to rip it out by it's roots and get the change he wants then by bringing over the T-Mobile management team and giving it carte blanche to lay waste to Sprint's major problems?
Now that last is pure speculation on my part, but who knows.
What T-Mobile has isn't it's tech, it's towers or it's uncarrier strategy. What Masayoshi Son wants is two things.
1. T-Mobile's wireless spectrum holdings
2. T-Mobile's subs
T-Mobile has plenty of lower spectrum wireless frequencies. Lower frequency penetrates buildings better and goes farther. Sprint's got two thirds of it's Spark offering in 1900mhz and 2.5Ghz. T-Mobile is down there around 600 and 800 mhz. Sprint's standard LTE is Band 25 which is 1900mhz.
More subs equals more profit.
One final point. Everyone is seeing this as Sprint taking over T-Mobile. That's true in the literal sense. But if you look a little deeper you might see a few things.
Masayoshi Son owns Softbank and Softbank owns 80% of Sprint. So, while "Sprint" may be "merging" with T-Mobile it's not "Sprint" that's going to be calling the shots. Son, through Softbank will be running things.
Next, Dan Hesse has already publicly declared that he's ok with NOT being in charge of a combined T-Mobile/Sprint. Does that suggest to you that Dan Hesse will be running things?
And lastly, it has ALSO been mentioned (publicly) that John Legere would be the most likely candidate to run things if a merger happened. Legere is already speaking as if he would be running the place.
Take a look. Personally, I think T-Mobile's management style is more in line with the management style of Masayoshi Son. If this merger gets past the Feds then do not be surprised if you find that Sprint "owns" T-Mobile on paper, but the reality is that Sprint is the one being swallowed by T-Mobile.
Son is dealing with a backwards, entrenched and highly resistant to change culture at Sprint. What better way to rip it out by it's roots and get the change he wants then by bringing over the T-Mobile management team and giving it carte blanche to lay waste to Sprint's major problems?
Now that last is pure speculation on my part, but who knows.
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A NYTimes article also thought Legere would be a likely candidate to head this merger.
I'm interested in how this would impact pricing. Would T-Mobile subscribers be able to keep what they signed up for with no contracts and reasonable pricing? Or would they be swallowed into Sprint's "framily"?
I'm interested to see where this goes. My boyfriend moved to T-Mobile from AT&T for their more reasonable pricing. I've considered making the switch if and when my parents make me pay for my own plan (on Verizon now but couldn't afford it on my own). But if they just become part of Sprint I'll stay with Verizon for the better coverage.
If this gets managed more as Sprint getting merged into T-mobile (even though on the business side it's the other way around), I wouldn't be opposed. So if Legere is CEO and they stay/evolve into a fully GSM/LTE carrier who's phones are unlockable and compatible around the world and they continue the "Uncarrier" pricing model rather than the gimmicky and confusing "Framily" plans, then I would be more than happy to see the two come together.
With T-mobile continuing some ownership, hopefully there would be a continued partnership with T-mobile overseas that allows them to offer the great international roaming plan they have.
With T-mobile continuing some ownership, hopefully there would be a continued partnership with T-mobile overseas that allows them to offer the great international roaming plan they have.
It will most definitely mean higher prices than what we would have otherwise paid. We'd be limited to three major wireless carriers who will divide up the pie and coordinate their pricing strategies.
I switched to TMO about 18 months ago to get away from Sprint's pokey 3G and empty promises about LTE. I'm satisfied with TMO HSPA in cities, but it's mostly EDGE and even GPRS outside of them. I can live with that because I don't travel much, so I can't justify spending another $20-$40/month for AT&T's or VZW's superior networks. But if Sprint does to TMO what it did to Nextel, I might have to pony up and switch.
Honestly, even if a merger happened, no one will notice any changes for 2-4 years. Let's say DT agree to merge and approve the buyout, it'll take a year for the deal to close meaning nothing will change. Once it's final and Softbank owns T-Mobile, they still need to figure out what to do with customers on both Sprint/T-Mobile depending on which legacy system stays in place. So at least 2 years on GSM for T-Mobile customers and CDMA for Sprint customers. By that time, I would assume most would be on VoLTE which would make CDMA/GSM point mute and combined company could utilize the spectrum to enhance LTE. Or LTE-A or whatever is available at that time.
I am afraid it is all about money to these two companies. Even the government will do little to stop it if they both give $$$ to the democratic campains. What is good for the people is seldom taken into consideration anymore.
T-Mobile/Sprint can shut down the CDMA network and begin to fully deploy LTE on 1900 MHz PCS (since both have 1900 MHz on LTE, but T-Mobile is deploying PCS in rural areas where they have EDGE or GPRS).
They can close in six months, if they really want, especially with the aggressive Son driving the deal. Once it's closed, Wall Street will not wait more than a year for the deal to improve the merged company's bottom line and shake up the industry.
Just look at how antsy they are that Son is still struggling to fix Sprint. The WSJ had an article about that today. The difference between the Sprint acquisition and the TMO acquisition is that Son is under a lot more pressure to deliver because the first deal isn't delivering results.
The ONLY reason why SoftBank wants T-Mobile USA is because they realized that Sprint is the worst U.S. carrier after they already bought them. Sprint isn't the cool carrier anymore ( I don't know if they ever were). I guarantee that if T-Mobile was not has successful as they have been the past year and a half, SoftBank would not be interested in them.
You tell me how 3 carriers gives better competition to the average consumer. If AT&T had successfully merged with T-Mobile 3 years ago, prices would probably be even higher today. There would be no Next, Edge, Jump, ect... Consumers would still be getting screwed up the A$$ with contracts and bogus terms and conditions. T-Mobile has successfully changed all that by themselves.
I want Sprint far, far away from T-Mobile. The only thing we can do is have faith in government to block his merger (again).
You tell me how 3 carriers gives better competition to the average consumer. If AT&T had successfully merged with T-Mobile 3 years ago, prices would probably be even higher today. There would be no Next, Edge, Jump, ect... Consumers would still be getting screwed up the A$$ with contracts and bogus terms and conditions. T-Mobile has successfully changed all that by themselves.
I want Sprint far, far away from T-Mobile. The only thing we can do is have faith in government to block his merger (again).
I hope so too. I noticed that Sprint doesn't even offer anything similar. They really don't market prepaid plans. I am planning on leaving Sprint once the iP6 is released, and going with T-Mobile, but it looks like I'll be with Sprint once again. I'll go ATT if this happens. At least they prepaid plans, but not as good as T-Mobile's.
I think it may be more that Masayoshi Son really found out what he got after he got it and not before. Or maybe he was arrogant and thought he could reform the Sprint culture.
In any case, I think he's finally realized what he has on his hands and is trying to find a way to fix it. I have in the past, here and in other forums made the comment that Sprint is Softbank's Nextel. I think this is probably evidence of that.
The biggest problem I have with Sprint fanboys is the fact that they ignore the reality of both the Sprint culture and Sprint management. I'm a Sprint customer, but I long ago recognized and learned to work around all that. Sprint will ALWAYS find a way to F-it up. It doesn't matter if there is 99.99% completion of something they've long promised. They'll take the reminder and do themselves (and the customer) in. Maybe Son managed to learn this quickly. IDK.
I just had a thought... If they merge and decide to go LTE/GSM and drop the CDMA, I have to wonder how it will affect MVNOs the Virgin Mobile and Boost that use the Sprint Network. Will they have to change networks too, or will they have to buy out the CDMA network? Perhaps Verizon will buy it all up?
Was doing my daily Google search for Sprint news and came up with this. I believe it tends to support my theory that Son had no friggin' clue what he was buying into. From the article:
If you weren't aware, Son had already moved about 1000 Softbank employees over to California to try and deal with this earlier this year. Enough of a crisis that Son didn't care if these guys had good English speaking skills or not.
One last thing to note. I find it VERY intriguing that after Dan Hesse made his public comment about being OK with not running a combined T-Mobile/Sprint, that he has all but disappeared from Sprint news. Sure, he's there in the major announcements, but Dan Hesse has always been one to grant press interviews and speak at workshops and conferences and such. Dan Hesse in case anyone forgot, is the CEO of Sprint.
So, I think it's telling that news about Dan Hesse has pretty much dried up. He's quiet and not really talking. I'd wager that he's now on the outs with Son as it's Son that's doing all the talking about merging Sprint with T-Mobile. Where's Sprint's CEO on all of this? Nowhere! Son probably hasn't fired him because of how that would look or maybe because Dan Hesse has a lot to gain from that bazillion dollar contract extension he was granted.
In either case, Sprint itself has gone largely quiet. Which is interesting because they are always talking smack about the "next" big thing they are going to do that will solve all their problems and fix world hunger. I guess this is how far down you have to go (in losing customers) before management finally starts to acknowledge what their customers have been saying about the crap network all along.
EDIT: I guess they just stuck the article behind their paywall. Sorry if you can't read it.
If you weren't aware, Son had already moved about 1000 Softbank employees over to California to try and deal with this earlier this year. Enough of a crisis that Son didn't care if these guys had good English speaking skills or not.
One last thing to note. I find it VERY intriguing that after Dan Hesse made his public comment about being OK with not running a combined T-Mobile/Sprint, that he has all but disappeared from Sprint news. Sure, he's there in the major announcements, but Dan Hesse has always been one to grant press interviews and speak at workshops and conferences and such. Dan Hesse in case anyone forgot, is the CEO of Sprint.
So, I think it's telling that news about Dan Hesse has pretty much dried up. He's quiet and not really talking. I'd wager that he's now on the outs with Son as it's Son that's doing all the talking about merging Sprint with T-Mobile. Where's Sprint's CEO on all of this? Nowhere! Son probably hasn't fired him because of how that would look or maybe because Dan Hesse has a lot to gain from that bazillion dollar contract extension he was granted.
In either case, Sprint itself has gone largely quiet. Which is interesting because they are always talking smack about the "next" big thing they are going to do that will solve all their problems and fix world hunger. I guess this is how far down you have to go (in losing customers) before management finally starts to acknowledge what their customers have been saying about the crap network all along.
EDIT: I guess they just stuck the article behind their paywall. Sorry if you can't read it.
Sprint created Boost to use all of the excess Nextel capacity when those subs left. Sprint bought Virgin Mobile USA a few years ago.
The Boost and Virgin sub-brands cover the prepaid market.
Well
it's looking more and more like I thought.
Masayoshi Son kills the Sprint culture and management by merging with T-Mobile and putting the T-Mobile management in charge and gets rid of the bad Sprint name by labeling all either T-Mobile or SoftbankUSA.
Dan Hesse is out and Legere is in and this Sprint albatross around Son's neck is gone.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-sprint-brand-may-go-away-after-t-mobile-merger/2014-06-13
Masayoshi Son kills the Sprint culture and management by merging with T-Mobile and putting the T-Mobile management in charge and gets rid of the bad Sprint name by labeling all either T-Mobile or SoftbankUSA.
Dan Hesse is out and Legere is in and this Sprint albatross around Son's neck is gone.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-sprint-brand-may-go-away-after-t-mobile-merger/2014-06-13