Should Sprint just acquire US Celluar

[IamMrFamous07]

Do you think in time Sprint would acquire all of US cell? I mean they use the same frequencies and it will give sprint more 850 spectrum in rural areas

[ericdabbs]

Do you think in time Sprint would acquire all of US cell? I mean they use the same frequencies and it will give sprint more 850 spectrum in rural areas

 

the problem is that Sprint has too many deals going on with the softbank/clearwire merger and the pending UScellular spectrum deal. Also if Sprint did buy US Cellular at a future date that Sprint would want to spend the resources to incorporate the 850 MHz band when its just for the rural areas. Sprint would contend that their 800 MHz CDMA and LTE services would do just the job not only in rural America but all over the US since they have all of the 800 MHz spectrum licenses.

 

A buyout of US Cellular would be useful only for their PCS and AWS spectrum. The 700 and 850 MHz spectrum licenses would be worthless to Sprint and would be better off selling them to ATT or Verizon for efficient use of the spectrum.

[ChadBroChillz]

Why would Sprint rather have the AWS over the 850? It would be easier to integrate the 850 into their network, plus they would already have BRS for higher frequency spectrum. Their phones already support CDMA 850 and their LTE tri-band phones will support LTE 850, since LTE band 26 includes 800 and 850.

 

I initially wanted sprint to merger with USCC, but I feel like sprint would probably be better just slowly expanding using their 800Mhz. I do believe that USCC will be the likely candidate, if Softbank is looking to merge. They probably know that they will never reach number 2 if sprint does not close the coverage gap between themselves and ATT/Verizon.

[bigsnake49]

I thought they should have acquired/merged with them a long time ago along with alltel. Sprint would have reduced their roaming bill and gained coverage credibility instantly.

[IamMrFamous07]

Well Hesse did say they are constantly looking for more spectrum and with Sprint already buying USCC Midwest market, it just makes since to acquire the rest. But yes Sprint has to focus on its deal with SoftBank and Clearwire first and also the current spectrum deal it has with USCC.

 

 

Does the FCC plan on having another spectrum auction?

[Mobilesolutions]

They spent nearly $500 million dollars to to buy the portion of USCC that benefits Sprint most financially, i believe it was imperative at the time to buy USCC because of spectrum license conflictions specifically in the Chicago & STL market. Assuming the valuation remains constant id value the rest of USCC at no more than 4 Billion. USCC would have to lose all hope internally to sell for that. And Sprint should never pay it.

[lynyrd65]

I don't want anyone to acquire US Cellular. I dont want to see competition reduced.

[Deval]

I think AJ put together a great spectrum map for USCC, and the findings were not all that impressive, in terms of what Sprint would gain.

 

Thoughts on that, AJ?

[mellimel2212]

Yeah I want these smaller carriers to step up and give all the big 4 competition but USCC is the only regional carrier close enough to be a 5th choice.

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus rockin 4.2.2 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[JeffDTD]

USCC would have to lose all hope internally to sell for that.

 

Ding ding ding....

[WiWavelength]

They spent nearly $500 million dollars to to buy the portion of USCC that benefits Sprint most financially, i believe it was imperative at the time to buy USCC because of spectrum license conflictions specifically in the Chicago & STL market.

 

Not exactly. Spectrum wise, Sprint benefits greatly in Chicago but not in St. Louis, which was already set. Both Chicago and St. Louis are/were underperforming markets for USCC, and honestly, St. Louis was probably a rider that USCC tacked on to the sale. If Sprint wanted Chicago, it had to take St. Louis off USCC's hands, too.

 

AJ

[Mobilesolutions]

 

 

Not exactly. Spectrum wise, Sprint benefits greatly in Chicago but not in St. Louis, which was already set. Both Chicago and St. Louis are/were underperforming markets for USCC, and honestly, St. Louis was probably a rider that USCC tacked on to the sale. If Sprint wanted Chicago, it had to take St. Louis off USCC's hands, too.

 

AJ

 

Sounds a lot like the bundle sale of landrover & jaguar to Tata Motors.

[WiWavelength]

Sounds a lot like the bundle sale of landrover & jaguar to Tata Motors.

 

Heh heh heh, you said, "Tata."

 

I realize that Tata is an Indian conglomerate and that names mean different things in different cultures, but that one always gets me as one of the most laughable names out there.

 

Now, I just wish that I could learn more about the Tata Group, hopefully get a good "feel" for two of its divisions.

 

 

AJ

[jefbal99]

I thought they should have acquired/merged with them a long time ago along with alltel. Sprint would have reduced their roaming bill and gained coverage credibility instantly.

 

Alltel tried to buy/merge with Sprint years ago and Sprint shot them down. This was a few years before the merger with big red.

 

Sprint got royally screwed in that deal as Sprint and Alltel had reciprocal roaming as native coverage. IE Alltel 3g appeared as Sprint to Sprint devices and Sprint 3g appeared as Alltel coverage to Alltel devices. Sprint had to greatly reduce their coverage maps when that deal went through.

[Fraydog]

St. Louis is already a much larger market for Sprint market share wise than USCC is/was. That said, the extra spectrum will be an aid there if Sprint wants to further go after AT&T which is the dominant player in that market.

 

St. Louis is the biggest third round market for Sprint BY FAR as far as market share and number of customers. I'm frankly shocked at the decision making that got it plugged into the third round. Sprint has more customers than Verizon in St. Louis. No, I'm not making that up. Verizon always had more sketchy coverage than almost any of the major carriers in St. Louis. They also had more issues with LTE outages there than anywhere else in the country. Plus there's the bizarre element of the equation, that St. Louis is an area with good working AT&T service, something you can't say about a LOT of places in the US. They not only have the fastest LTE there, but also the best coverage and from what I know, the least dropped calls. I call this Bizarro AT&T because it's out of line compared to the rest of the AT&T network I used from 2005-2011 through the rest of the country.

 

If USCC has to sell out, I would hope it's to T-Mobile in a MetroPCS like deal where T-Mobile primarly uses it to fix their number one weakness, rural coverage, as well as being used to reduce DT's stake and give the Carlson family a national wireless play.

[omega]

St. Louis is already a much larger market for Sprint market share wise than USCC is/was. That said' date=' the extra spectrum will be an aid there if Sprint wants to further go after AT&T which is the dominant player in that market.

 

St. Louis is the biggest third round market for Sprint BY FAR as far as market share and number of customers. I'm frankly shocked at the decision making that got it plugged into the third round. Sprint has more customers than Verizon in St. Louis.[/quote']

 

Hi,

 

Where do you find the number of subs per carrier's, I would love to see a thread of market by market.

[Fraydog]

Hi,

 

Where do you find the number of subs per carrier's, I would love to see a thread of market by market.

 

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1766584-Number-of-VZW-subscribers-(and-other-carriers)-per-market

[Rukin1]

Us Celluar is a dying company. They are going to fall soon. Someone needs to buy them out lol

[lynyrd65]

Us Celluar is a dying company. They are going to fall soon. Someone needs to buy them out lol

 

What? They are still profitable and show no signs of falling as a company.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Rukin1]

What? They are still profitable and show no signs of falling as a company.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Well Not anytime soon i should refraise. They just haven't kept up with the big names

[Rickie546]

St. Louis is already a much larger market for Sprint market share wise than USCC is/was. That said, the extra spectrum will be an aid there if Sprint wants to further go after AT&T which is the dominant player in that market.

 

St. Louis is the biggest third round market for Sprint BY FAR as far as market share and number of customers. I'm frankly shocked at the decision making that got it plugged into the third round. Sprint has more customers than Verizon in St. Louis. No, I'm not making that up. Verizon always had more sketchy coverage than almost any of the major carriers in St. Louis. They also had more issues with LTE outages there than anywhere else in the country. Plus there's the bizarre element of the equation, that St. Louis is an area with good working AT&T service, something you can't say about a LOT of places in the US. They not only have the fastest LTE there, but also the best coverage and from what I know, the least dropped calls. I call this Bizarro AT&T because it's out of line compared to the rest of the AT&T network I used from 2005-2011 through the rest of the country.

 

If USCC has to sell out, I would hope it's to T-Mobile in a MetroPCS like deal where T-Mobile primarly uses it to fix their number one weakness, rural coverage, as well as being used to reduce DT's stake and give the Carlson family a national wireless play.

 

Well one factor could be crews. One company from St Louis, AMF, was doing alot of towers in the Kansas market, now that of those are done they can work in STL

[WiWavelength]

Well one factor could be crews. One company from St Louis, AMF, was doing alot of towers in the Kansas market, now that of those are done they can work in STL

 

...or go bowling.

 

 

AJ

[Fraydog]

...or go bowling.

 

 

AJ

 

Or the dark days where AMF owned Harley Davidson and almost ruined their brand. The AMF Harleys were such junk.

 

 

Damn near killed Evel Knevel.

[gusherb]

St. Louis is already a much larger market for Sprint market share wise than USCC is/was. That said, the extra spectrum will be an aid there if Sprint wants to further go after AT&T which is the dominant player in that market.

 

St. Louis is the biggest third round market for Sprint BY FAR as far as market share and number of customers. I'm frankly shocked at the decision making that got it plugged into the third round. Sprint has more customers than Verizon in St. Louis. No, I'm not making that up. Verizon always had more sketchy coverage than almost any of the major carriers in St. Louis. They also had more issues with LTE outages there than anywhere else in the country. Plus there's the bizarre element of the equation, that St. Louis is an area with good working AT&T service, something you can't say about a LOT of places in the US. They not only have the fastest LTE there, but also the best coverage and from what I know, the least dropped calls. I call this Bizarro AT&T because it's out of line compared to the rest of the AT&T network I used from 2005-2011 through the rest of the country.

 

If USCC has to sell out, I would hope it's to T-Mobile in a MetroPCS like deal where T-Mobile primarly uses it to fix their number one weakness, rural coverage, as well as being used to reduce DT's stake and give the Carlson family a national wireless play.

 

I had that same "bizzarro AT&T" experience in Colorado. It was almost surreal that I consistently got 5 bars everywhere I went, and decent HSPA speeds too.

 

Like many places, what I was used to was their network in Chicago which felt very "piecemealed" and botched up. Service quality was very inconsistent. I always have a consistent voice service experience on Sprint wherever I go, LTE as long as I'm connected is very consistent, EVDO is the only thing that swings all over the place.

[technicholas]

I talked to some "supervisor" at Sprint and he was sure that Sprint bought US Cellular I was like uhh I don't think so. He said it was waiting for approval I am like ok....